стрелка Arrow
by MattSpy05
Summary: AU of Arrow - To live, I had to make myself more than what I was, I was forced by the fist, the blade, the gun to forge myself into a weapon, but I achieved my goal, I survived, not as the boy that was left for dead and sold to the highest bidder, but as a man who will fight those who chose to let me die, to let me suffer, I am returning to deal the same pain that they dealt me.
1. Pilot

**Once again thanks for the huge response to Momentos, I will continue working on that as ideas for those pop into my head. However, I recently had an idea and it has now mutated into this beast that I must write. I write a set of mafia related short stories called **_**This Corporation of Ours, **_**and I was thinking how I could create a hybrid of Arrow and my mafia pieces. At first I dismissed it as some dumb idea but then my brain starting working it together and before you know it the beast has awoken and I have to feed it.**

**So here's the situation: Instead of Oliver Queen returning from Lian Yu, he has instead returned from Russia. His family, the Queen Family, not only own a legitimate corporation but are also a kingpin in organized crime, along with The Merlyn Family, the Triad, and the Bertinelli Family, and some smaller families. **

**I will be working through the episodes of Arrow starting with the Pilot, not sure I'm going to go episode for episode because with all the other projects I'm working on I don't think I could finish all of them but we'll see…so without further ado…here's is episode 1 Pilot of ****стрелка Arrow.**

**As always I own nothing.**

* * *

**Pilot**

Oliver Queen: Ever since that fateful day when my life was taken away from me, I have had one goal, to survive, survive the beatings, the torture, all the pain, the guilt, survive so that one day I may return home. To live, I had to make myself more than what I was, I was forced by the fist, the blade, the gun to forge myself into a weapon, but I achieved my goal, I survived, not as the boy that was left for dead, but as a man who will fight those who chose to let me die, to let me suffer, I am returning to deal the same pain that the dealt me, my name is Oliver Queen.

* * *

The Channel Seven News interrupted its daily programming, _Lost Billionaire Found, _was the headline, "Oliver Queen has been discovered, he had been declared missing five years ago after he and his father billionaire patriarch of the controversial Queen Family of Starling City disappeared in Moscow five years ago. Queen was a fixture in the Starling City tabloids and a fixture in the club scene, the last time in the states he was under investigation for brutally assaulting a photographer it was assumed that the trip to Russia was to get Queen away from the limelight and to alleviate the bad publicity he was causing the Queen Family. We still have no news on whether this update on Oliver Queen's status will bring us any new information on the status of his father Robert, as of now Robert Queen is still declared missing."

* * *

Moira Queen observed him through the window of the hospital door, the doctor calmly walked up behind her, "Twenty percent of his body is covered in scar tissue, second degree burns on his back and arms, x-rays show at least twelve fractures that never healed properly, and his feet have frostbite version of trench foot, he will have to deal with some excruciating pain in order to save his feet."

Moria sighed, "Has he said anything about what happened?"

The doctor shook his head, "No he's barely said anything," he sighed again, "Moira I want you to prepare yourself, the Oliver you lost might not be the one they found."

Moira nodded and entered Oliver's room, Oliver was sitting in his bed looking out the window, pain medication and in I.V. bag flowed through his system , device was wrapped around his feet that slowly was bringing his frostbitten feet back to temperature were secured around his legs. Oliver turned his gaze to his mother and did his best to release a smile, "Mom."

Moira wiped the tears from her face and embraced her son, "My beautiful boy."

A week later and after his feet were still attached to his body Oliver rode in his personal family Bentley on his way back to the Queen mansion which stood firmly inside the Queen compound. Oliver insisted on taking his own bags into the house, while his mother, for some reason, began to give him a tour as if he didn't remember where he was raised.

"Oliver," a British accent echoed at him, "It's damn good to see you." Oliver did nothing but glare at him.

"You remember Walter? You father's friend from the company?" Moira suggested. Oliver walked passed him and hugged his old housekeeper, "It's good to see you Raisa."

"Welcome home Mr. Oliver," she then turned to Moira, "Mr. Merlyn wants to join you for dinner."

Oliver then heard the door of his sister's room shut, racing down the stairs is his sister Thea, "Oliver, you're home! Last time I saw you, you were groaning like a bear!"

"That's because my feet were being thawed, I forgot while I was fighting to save my feet, that I got something for you."

"You did not bring back a souvenir."

Oliver pulled a palm sized birch wood object out of his jacket and handed it to Thea, "This is a birch box, it was handcrafted over a century ago, it was given to me as a sign of friendship by an Orthodox priest, I'm giving this to you as a symbol of our friendship. I'm hoping that after all these years I've missed with you that I can still be your friend."

Thea hugged him, "You're my brother you will always be my friend."

Oliver turned to his mother, "I understand that this is supposed to be a happy reunion and all but I would like to get cleaned up if you all don't mind." Oliver didn't even look back before kissing his sister on the cheek and climbing the steps to his room. He slipped off his clothes and took time to observe the massive granite shower that was larger than the size of his safe house. He soaked in the continuous hot water for forty-five minutes before exiting the steam filled room. Wrapped in a towel Oliver moved on to his favorite new hobby looking out at the night skyline of Starling City.

Oliver Queen: After five years, everything that was once familiar is unrecognizable. The face I see in the mirror is a stranger.

* * *

_Oliver and his father were riding in a limousine through Moscow, the waft of Cuban Cigars consume all spaces of the vehicle, two bottles of Vodka had already been finished, each man in the car relaxed and worked on their cigars while the Russian call girls began to feel their bodies and seduce them in Russian._

_ "Do you have idea what they're saying?" Oliver joked._

_ "Don't care," his father responded._

_ "This is some way of punishing me." Oliver laughed._

_ Robert Queen chuckled, "I'm not going to punish you for beating a man that is intruding on our family space, what I will say is that there are different ways to entertain yourself, don't make yourself so public, you can have plenty of fun without making yourself a target to the press, this is just me showing you how it's done."_

_ Suddenly the limousine jolted violently to the right, and then back to the left, the glass of the limousine shattered all over the place, a hooded man grabbed Oliver by his hair and pulled him out of the limousine and threw him in the back of a transit van._

* * *

"What I tell you, Russia sucks." A familiar voice rang out behind Oliver.

Oliver smiled and turned around to see his best friend smiling back at him , "Tommy Merlyn, I missed you buddy."

The duo entered into the dining room and took their seats while Raisa served dinner. Tommy began to spat all the things he missed while being in Russia, everything from all his girlfriends to Super Bowl winners, to now having a black president, to what happened on television shows. Oliver wanted to interrupt him and say that he did have a television back in Russia but he didn't want to ruin Tommy's fun.

"What was it like there?" Thea interrupted.

Everyone went silent, worried that Oliver would unleash some PTSD form of rage, but instead he smiled and replied that it was cold. That got a laugh out of the room.

"Tomorrow you and I were doing the city, you have a lot to catch up on," Tommy started again.

Oliver nodded, "Then I would like to stop by the office tomorrow."

"Oh there is no need for that so soon, Queen Consolidated isn't going anywhere," Walter replied.

"No," Oliver stated, "I just wanted to see where it's gone since you've been sleeping with my mother."

* * *

_ Oliver and his father are thrown into a room; after their black hoods are released they saw the men dumping the body of the dead call girls into barrels._ _A man followed behind him by two men wearing black ski masks and carrying automatic weapons._

_ "Mr. Queen," the man smiled, "Братва приветствует вас." _

That night the nightmares of running for his life made Oliver turn violently in his bed, his mother tried to wake him but instead she just startled him, Oliver pulls a nine milimeter revolver out of his pillow and shoved into his mother's face.

"Oliver!" Walter Steele shouted at him. The British voice did enough to snap him out of his trance and he realized that he's pointing a loaded weapon at his mother's face.

"I'm so sorry." Oliver quivered.

"Don't be," Moira answered, "It's okay, you're home now, you're home."

The next day Tommy was chauffeuring him around town talking about planning a welcome fome party for him. When suddenly in a moment of déjà vu a car slammed into the side of Tommy's McLaren AMG Mercedes.

* * *

_A gun is now being pointed at Robert Queen's head, "Mr. Queen, are you hear to make a trade?"_

_Robert Queen shook his head, "Is this what this is about, I had a few more days, I didn't need your assistance!"_

* * *

Oliver jolted out of his seat from the annoying man wearing a demon mask, he realized two things, one he was zip tied to a chair, and two these guys had no idea who they were dealing with.

"Mr. Queen!" The man taunted him with a Taser, "Did you father talk to you about the code?"

Oliver looked down at his friend Tommy who was unconscious on the warehouse floor, the man in the mask annoyingly continued, "I ask the questions you give me the answers."

Oliver didn't want to bother with these people, until the man decided to drive the taser into his chest, "Did he survive? Yes or No?" The man laughed before he tazed him again.

Oliver caught his breath and decided to respond, "Yes he did."

"What did he tell you about the code Mr. Queen?"

Oliver sneared, "He told me," then Oliver calmed himself, "That if anyone asked kill them."

"You're delusional Mr. Queen, you're not going anywhere while you're zip-cuffed to that chair."

Oliver lifted his hands up, "Who says I'm still zip-cuffed." Oliver flipped up the chair and broke the chair over his interrogators head, he used the wooden chair leg that remained in his left hand to stab through his tormenter's throat, he then used the one in his right hand to stab the man approaching him in the shoulder, he then grabbed the gun from the man's hand and shot him in the chest. As the third man attempted to gun him down with his automatic, Oliver silenced him with a bullet between the eyes. After he confirmed that the three men were dead, he checked Tommy's pulse and was relieved that he was still alive.

Tommy slowly got up, "What the fuck happened."

"Mob shit," Oliver responded, "They wanted to see if I had turned, let's go."

"Wait a minute did you just kill them all?" Tommy asked.

"No," Oliver answered, "I just woke up, I was in a chair, these guys were dead when I woke up."

* * *

Laurel Lance was already tired of the headlines, that asshole had decided to beat the crap out of a paparazzi on his bachelor party, and then decided to run to Russia with his father to escape the heat _a week before their wedding_, then he disappeared off the face of the Earth. In the meantime, while he was gone numerous women came out and said they slept with him during their engagement, and the story of the son of a supposed mob boss marrying the daughter of the lead detective of organized crime. That their love was a sham, that it was an arranged marriage to push Queen wealth into the hands of the Lances. She didn't care about the money, she cared about Oliver, but clearly with his behavior he didn't feel the same way. She had moved on with her life, becoming a consulting attorney for those in need. She did anything to escape the image that she was becoming a mob wife, or that she was nothing more than a whore that her father pimped in order to get into the good graces of the Queens. Now after five years of peace, Oliver Queen appears out of nowhere, and if that wasn't exciting enough, he gets involved in a failed mob hit attempt on his first day out of the hospital. Now the press was looking for the story again and were invading her private space once more. This just made things more difficult as her class action suit against Mark Hunt was in two days.

* * *

"You are different, not like you to read a book," Raisa joked as she delivered his breakfast to his room.

"Have I changed that much?" Oliver asked.

"No," she responded, "You are still a good boy.

Oliver scoffed, "I don't' believe that was the case."

"But you had a good heart," she answered.

"I hope so, I want to be the man that you always wanted me to be."

After breakfast Oliver made his way outside where Moira and Walter awaited him, "Oliver, I would like you to meet someone, this is John Diggle he's going to accompany you from now on."

Oliver scoffed, "I don't need a babysitter."

"He's right Oliver is a grown man and if he feels that he doesn't need our protection than we should give him that right." Walter concluded.

Moira shushes Walter with one hand, "No, I need this for me."

John Diggle stood next to Oliver's Bentley, Oliver could do nothing but smile. Oliver walked over to him shook his hand, "Well Mr. Diggle shall we?"

Diggle nodded and opened the door for Oliver and then stepped into the car, as they pulled out of the driveway Oliver sighed, "So I take that my mom bought it."

"Yes sir, 105th airborne out of Kandahar, being in the private sector for four years, she bit all of it, getting paid a hundred grand to protect your sorry ass."

"A hundred grand is all I'm worth to her, I'm insulted."

"So was I."

Oliver laughed, "не так ли?"

Diggle smiled, "абсолютно."

Diggle parked the Bentley in a shopping center garage, and then the two got into an old '98 Camry and drove to Robert Queen's old steel factory. As the two entered Oliver smiled, "I like the work you've been doing here."

Diggle nodded, "Yeah, I had to pick axe the floor to find the location of your father's old drug smuggling center, but I found it. Loaded all the equipment that I had shipped through China to avoid suspicion by Customs, knocked down the walls underneath because they gave us more room for our operations, and was able to get a military grade generator to operate everything, so were still off the electrical grid."

"Very nice Mr. Diggle," Oliver concluded. So if you don't mind, can you keep a lookout I'd like to get a workout in if you don't mind?"

Diggle smiled, "I even installed a salmon ladder for you."

A few hours later, Diggle returned and observed the tennis balls stuck to the walls with arrows, "Why arrows Oliver?"

Oliver turned to him, "Because they're quiet."

Diggle sighed, "It's time to go talk to you're fiancee."

* * *

"You went to law school," Oliver smiled, "You said you would."

"Yeah," Laurel responded sharply, "Everyone's proud."

Oliver looked down at the street, "Adam Hunt is a heavy hitter are you sure you want to get into the ring with him?"

"Five years and you want to talk about Adam Hunt?"

Oliver shook his head, "Not really, just thought it could be an ice breaker. Look, I know it's too late to say this but I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Laurel answered, "Because after you left, all your dirty little secrets came out, and I realized afterwards that marrying you would have been the biggest mistake of my life, because someone like you should rot in hell for eternity." She turned to Diggle, "You can take him now, and the next time he shows up unannounced, he's going to need a lot more protection than you."

As she walked away Diggle smiled, "Well at least she said you should bring protection, that's a start."

Oliver nodded, "Time to take down Hunt."

* * *

Oliver Queen: Adam Hunt, his crimes go deeper than fraud and theft, he has been able to bully, bribe, and kill anyone who has gotten into his way…he hasn't met me yet.

* * *

"You remind Grell I put him on the bench, I can also take him off, I will turn him into a cautionary tale, and this attorney Laurel Lance? You said she wasn't going to be a problem anymore?" He turned to his assistant, "Why are you still here?" Suddenly an arrow went flying into a string of lights turning the area in the parking garage into darkness. A second arrow struck one of Hunt's men in the chest. His other guard pushed Hunt into his limo and fired a random array of bullets into the darkness, after a moment three arrows burry into his chest and Hunt watches as one of his best men fell lifeless to the ground. The window next the Hunt exploded sending glass all over the place. Hunt observed the arrow and noticed something attached to the nock until it sent him through the window and out onto the concrete, he looked up to see a man dressed in a green shut with his face covered by a green hood and black balaclava.

Hunt saw he was at a disadvantage in this situation, "Just tell me what you want?"

The hooded man jumped down from the limo and grabbed Hunt by the lapels of his shirt, "You are going to transfer forty million dollars into Starling City bank account 1141 by ten p.m. tomorrow night."

"Or what?"

"Or I'm going to take it and I fear what your employer would say if forty million dollars were to vanish into thin air."

"You're a dead man, you know that, if I see you again you're dead!"

"No you will be," Oliver delivered and elbow to Hunt's temple knocking him out cold.

* * *

Oliver descended down the stairs to his own party, nicely enough, Diggle was able to work with Tommy to find a "secure" location for the party, in the building right next to Adam Hunt's office. According to Oliver, Hunt had fifty-three minutes to make the right decision, dump the forty million into the bank account use the bank account to replenish the funds he stole to make The Hood look good while using the bank account's tracking software to unlock all of Adam Hunt's funds for his own purposes, the Hood looks good, and Oliver walks away with the greater steal to fund his operations. If Adam Hunt didn't comply he would just have to do the job himself, which would be more dirty and cost more lives. Either way his employer the one that Adam Hunt never acknowledged would kill him within hours, so really it was his choice, him dead, or him and others dead.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Look who it is it's the man of the hour! Ladies give this man a proper homecoming!" Oliver walked through the crowd of ogling women trying to feel all parts of him before making it to the stage, Oliver then took a shot of tequila from his friend, "Oh I missed tequila."

Adam Hunt's team had approximately thirty-five minutes before this so called Hood would return, the rest of his security team was not taking any chances all were wearing Kevlar and carrying automatic weapons. "What's going on down there?"

"It's a party for Queen's son being rescued in Russia." His head of security answered.

"Fucking douchebag," Hunt answered.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Oliver knew that voice he turned around and smiled.

"It takes a little longer than a day for me to rot, I apologize."

Laurel sighed, "I apologize, I shouldn't have said that."

Oliver nodded, "No you had the right to say that," Oliver sighed, "Look I know why you're here looking absolutely outstanding as you always do. You came here to see if I changed being away, to see if I learned from my mistakes, well the answer is I did, and I learned more than anything that I am not a good person. You do not need me or should want me in your life, you are doing good and being with me is just going to bring you back to being Oliver Queen's dumb fiancee who couldn't see all the signs when they were right in front of everyone's face. So do yourself a favor and leave me, forever, save yourself from me."

Laurel shook her head, "One thing hasn't changed, you're still conceited, I didn't come here to reconnect with you, you're right there is too much between us and too much good I'm doing to throw that all away, besides you have five years of debauchery to catch up on that I just don't want to deal with, no I came here as a friend to say if you need me to talk about what happened I'll listen, just don't think for a second that you will ever take advantage of me again."

Oliver nodded as the alarm on his phone went off signaling that Adam Hunt did not send the money, "I don't plan on it Laurel."

Oliver walks his way down to the kitchen where Diggle is waiting, "He's got the entire floor filled with firepower, and he has an electronic alarm system that will lock down the hall at a moment's notice."

"What about the windows?" Oliver remarked.

"Nothing," Diggle smiled.

Oliver smiled, "это то, что я думал."

* * *

Adam Hunt's floor went dark, Hunt was startled but his head of security smiled, "That's the security system working, dumbass used the elevator." The team waited for the elevator to stop, awaiting the mass man who will be trapped in the elevator while they riddle him with bullets, as the bell rang the team pointed their guns at the door, only to be met with a barrage of gunfire instead, the armor piercing rounds puncture through the Kevlar and within minutes all the men in the hallway are dead without ever firing a shot. Only four men remained, two guards, the head of security and hunt himself, the three armed men all waited at the door ready to fire on a moment's notice, instead they didn't notice Oliver crashing through window on the opposite side, before they knew it two arrows were lodged into the guards leaving only the head of security and Hunt who was hiding behind his desk. Oliver fired an arrow at Hunt, it missed him by a foot but lodged right into Hunt's server.

"You missed," he laughed.

"Really?" Oliver added. Then the head of security tried to stab him with a knife but aimed for his face instead of his kidneys giving Oliver ample time to duck under him and do what he should have done to him, with the arrow lodged in his kidney, Oliver then turned him over and delivered one to his face. Oliver then jumped out the window deciding to leave Hunt alive, the terror of him losing over two hundred million of his money would be more terrifying to him than killing him on the spot, Hunt will have to wait a few more days for his death instead.

* * *

"_Can I talk to my son first? At least give me a chance to tell him face to face?" Robert Queen asked. The Russian man nodded and stepped aside. Robert Queen turned to his son, "Oliver what I'm about to tell you, you will never forgive me for, but someday I hope you will understand it, all my businesses, most of my businesses are not legitimate, and sometimes deals in these businesses go bad. I had a deal with the Bratva, a trafficking deal, I was going to bring a shipment of women in for them, but the catch was is that I was going to pin the shipment on the Triad, make money off the deal eliminate a competitor, but I had a mole and they notified the Triad and they bailed out of the shipping deal, so it left me with bringing the shipment of girls to Starling, shaming my entire family, and bringing down our whole empire, or bringing you."_

_ Oliver eyes shot up, "What are you saying?"_

_ "He's saying Mr. Queen that your father traded your life for his, he offered you to the Bratva, although I would have preferred your sister, she could have made me more money, but still a deal is a deal. Except for one part Mr. Queen," the man pulls out a pistol and drove three shots into Robert Queen's chest. Selling your children to save yourself is dishonorable and that costs interests."_

_ Oliver looked down at his father then pulled out a palm sized item a small wooden box with a cross on it, "Forgive me, find the code, forgive me." Robert's eyes went still and his body slumped over in lifelessness. The Russian Bratva walked over and sneered, "какашка," and then fired a final bullet through his skull for good measure._

* * *

A man walked down the steps of Queen Manor, "The police won't be able to identify the men that abducted them, they never will , she we plan another abduction?"

Moira Queen shook her head, "No, there are other ways to find out what my son knows."

* * *

Adam Hunt tried his best to get one of his investors to help him escape, he chose the worst hotel he can find on the far end of The Glades, hoping that he wouldn't be found, but as he turned around he saw the same hood, the same balaclava, just black instead of green, before he had a chance to speak two arrows pierced his heart and the once great Adam Hunt laid dead in a twenty-five dollar a night hotel, surrounded by magazines describing his failure.

End


	2. Honor

**First of all I posted a new memento for **_**Momentos**_**, some reviews are starting to roll in for that piece and the reaction to it has been outstanding. Expect to see a momentum piece posted in the next few days (that's a look to the future piece if you don't know, mementos are looks to the past). **

**A couple things you all need to know about this story, first thing I am NOT going to do every episode that would be a lot of work, but I am going to combine a few episodes together. So for example, the last seen of **_**Pilot**_**, showed the first seen of season 1 episode 9 **_**Season's End.**_** Some of the episodes don't necessarily fit with this universe so instead of doing the whole episode we will just do bits and pieces of them. Second thing, there is going to be quite a bit of Russian in this story. I'm using Google translate for this piece so if they aren't perfect Russian I apologize, if you all want a translation guide let me know with a review or private message and I'll see what I can do.**

**This next piece will use a vast majority of Season 1 Episode 2 and little sprinkling of Episode 9, Enjoy!**

**As always I own nothing**

* * *

**Honor**

Oliver Queen: The day I went missing was the day I died, five years in hell forged me into a weapon, before my father betrayed me he finally told me the truth, that most of our family's wealth is built off the suffering of others, that the money that was left for me was nothing more than blood money. He also gave me something far more important, he gave me a code, a secret kept by all the Heads of Families in Starling City for nearly a hundred years. I will see to it that all the Family's in Starling City who protect this code will be destroyed, but I can't do that as Oliver Queen, I have to be someone else, I have to be _something _else.

* * *

Detective Quentin Lance looks down at the body of Adam Hunt, just hours ago, he was called to Adam Hunt's office over a robbery and multiple homicides in an attempted hit attempt. The scene was gruesome, bodies strung out all over with bullets that came from a gun turret placed in the elevator, three more deaths with arrows to the chest. Another arrow was embedded into Adam Hunt's server that used a military grade brute force hacking device that emptied all of Adam Hunt's accounts business and personal within seconds. Adam Hunt had gone into hiding and it only took a few hours to find his body with three arrows through his chest.

"Is it the same guy?" The police chiefs asks Lance.

Lance shakes his head, "At first I thought the same thing, but those arrows don't match these arrows, and the guy or guys for that matter were pretty thorough, they killed his whole security and fleeced him of two hundred million dollars, why let him get away just to find him later, no were dealing with another archer, perhaps a legion."

* * *

Oliver Queen walks into his mother's study dressed in a navy blue suit and tie, he stops and watches the news report of Adam Hunt robbery and death, Oliver smiles, "An archer with green arrow steals from Adam Hunt, I didn't know Robin Hood was so interested in Starling City."

"I don't remember Robin Hood killing his victims," Moira Queen adds, "I just don't like it, I don't feel safe with a scum bag like this running rough shot around our city."

"Ah, mom, what are you worried about?" Thea smiles, "You think we're going to be next?"

"Do you have any questions about today Oliver?" Walter Steele asks, "It's a simple proof of life declaration, just read our simple statement we have prepared for you and the judge will declare that you are in fact the real Oliver Queen."

"It's fine Oliver I have been in a courtroom before," Oliver smiles.

"Four times by my estimate," Tommy Merlyn chimes in, "There's the dui, the assault on that paparazzi douchebag, stealing that taxi which was just awesome by the way."

Oliver nods his head in agreement.

Tommy laughs, "And who could forget peeing on the cop?"

Moira shakes her head, "I wish everyone would."

Oliver places his hand on Tommy's shoulder, "I'd hang but were headed to court."

"I know," Tommy answers, "That's why I'm here, my best friend is getting legally resurrected I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Technically I was never dead, I was missing." Oliver counters, Oliver turns to his sister, "What about you?"

"Ah, I think the first four times in court were enough for me," Thea walks away.

"Fair enough," Oliver answers.

John Diggle walks into the study, "Mrs. Queen the car is ready."

Oliver, Walter, Tommy and Moira enter the Bentley, Diggle drives them all to the courthouse, upon his arrival the press swarms him wanting to know everything that has happened to him that last five years. Images of his father last words, the handing of the birch box, and then the Russian gangster shooting his father in the head resurface as he works his way through the crowd in front of him. He takes a seat in the courtroom next to Walter Steele and the Queen Family's army of lawyers. The lawyer's go through the process of explaining to the judge that dental records, blood tests, and further DNA samples prove that Oliver is in fact Oliver and that his rights as Oliver Queen should be reinstated. After the presentations, Oliver makes his way to the podium, he talks to the judge about the accident in Moscow, that his father didn't survive the accident. That he thought he had died as well, but that people were after him after him because he was a Queen, and he had to run away to go into hiding in fear of his and his family's life. Only when he felt that those pursuing him had given up did he finally allow himself to be rescued. At the end of the hearing the judge agreed that the Oliver Queen standing in the courthouse was Oliver Queen and his rights as Oliver Queen were restored to him including his family's trust fund.

As they walked out of the courtroom Moira sighs, "Now on to the offices, everyone is so excited to see you."

Oliver holds a hand out, "Mom that was a little heavier than I thought it was going to be, can we do that tomorrow? Please?"

Moira nods, "Of course, let's go home."

As Moira walks away Tommy turns to him, "Just last week you said that you couldn't wait to get to the company."

"I had been stuck in Siberia for five years I wasn't exactly thinking straight, oh hi…" Oliver turns a corner and runs straight into Laurel Lance.

Laurel stairs at him, "What are you doing here?"

Oliver clears his throat, "Oh, ah, I was in court to prove that I'm me and not some imposter trying to steal Oliver Queen's money."

"Mhm, well ladies, let me introduce Oliver Queen, five years ago he bailed on me a few days before our wedding to go to Russia with his dad and then disappeared, and while I was grieving his lost and canceling wedding plans I found out that he had multiple partners during our engagement, and just last week he told me to stay away from him, which I learned is really good advice." Laurel brushes past Oliver and glares at Tommy as she walks into a courtroom.

"Well it was good to meet you," one of Laurel's assistants mentions before they both try to catch up with Laurel.

"Ow," Tommy mentions, "Come on buddy shake it off, let's go."

Oliver makes his way out of the courthouse and once again waiting for him is a set of reporters who he thought are waiting for their next fix of him, instead they were surrounding by a scruff bearded man, "I don't understand this witch-hunt that this Laurel Lance has been putting me through for her bosses at CNRI, but can tell you this I can tell you this I am an honest business man, I will fight this slander to my last dime and breath, that's all I have to say thank you."

* * *

Laurel Lance approaches the judge in one of the much smaller upstairs courtrooms, barely anyone is in the room except for the judge one officer, and Laurel Lance's team sitting at their table. "How much is a man's life worth? A good man, who's just doing his job at the docks that mean so much to the city that we live in, a father, a man with a daughter, the plaintiff will prove by a preponderance of evidence, Victor Nosanti, knew that his boss who didn't even bother to show up today, Mr. Martin Summers, was taking bribes from the Chinese Triad to smuggle drugs into our city, and when Victor Nosanto threatened to tell the police Martin Summers had him killed. Mr. Summers is very well connected and has friends in the district attorney's office, which is why if Emily Nosanti, who is afraid to show her face here in fear of her family's safety, is to get justice for her father's death, if Martin Summers is to get justice for his crimes than someone is going to have to do it for them."

* * *

After dropping off Tommy back at the Merlyn Compound, Diggle once again drove into another public parking garage before the two got out of the car and drove a '99 Honda Civic into their base of operations in the basement of his father's old steel factory. Oliver once again did some workouts and some archery practice before sitting at his table to assemble new arrows. He texts Diggle to meet him below for a discussion on business issues.

"So I take it that you found something to do with your one hundred and sixty million dollars besides buying old Japanese cars?" Diggle jokes.

"Yes," Oliver simply answers, "Smuggling, drug smuggling to be exact."

Diggle turns his head in confusion, "That's the Triad's domain, do you really want to take on the entire Triad by yourself?"

Oliver shakes his head, "I'm not going to take on the Triad, I'm going to go after their front man, Martin Summers."

Diggle chuckles, "Hm, Adam Hunt being targeted by Laurel Lance before you take him for all he's worth, and now Martin Summers, who Laurel Lance is deciding to do the DA's job and prosecute him without their permission. Are you doing this for yourself or to get into the good graces of your old fiancée?"

Oliver inhales and exhales deeply, "I see your point Dig, but just like Martin Summers is the front for the Triad, Laurel Lance has now become the front for The Hood. The Hood becomes a vigilante gets public support, gets Laurel Lance's support to the point she takes on more families, and after the hood who gets to take up the empty space? Me and The Bratva."

"Taking on Martin Summers isn't going to stop the shipments Oliver." Diggle counters.

"I know, that's what the one hundred and sixty million is for, were going to use a much more efficient mode of travel, drugs will get here faster, and with the Triad showing problems and their front being handled by The Hood, people will be more in demand for our shipments, and eventually the Triad will be phased out slowly, then we take them out."

Oliver Queen: Martin Summers, the City's police and DA can't stop him or won't, Laurel thinks she's the only one willing to bring him to justice, she's wrong, perhaps she's doing it to give just those lives that Martin Summers has ruined, or she just gets a fix out of dealing with Starling City's worst, I want to bring him to justice to get him out of my way, even if we have different reasons, giving Laurel her justice she craves for is just good business.

* * *

Martin Summers storms into his office at the docks, "You listen to me, the longer this trial goes the more chance that it gives to media to crucify me, you shut this trial down you understand me?"

His lawyer nods, "Yes sir."

Suddenly an object flies through the air and the lights go dark. Martin Summers can hear nothing but the screams of agony by his guards, finally the lights start to return but as he looks around he sees nothing but bodies, including his lawyers strung all over the floor. He looks around trying to find the culprit until he is grabbed from behind by the throat.

The next thing he sees is and man dressed in a green hood and balaclava staring at him upside down, until he realizes that he is actually the person that is upside down.

"Martin Summers, you've failed this city!" The man in green growls at him before unleashing an arrow that barely misses him, "You're going to confess in that trial, you're going confess that you had Victor Nosanti killed, and there won't be a second warning," the man in green shoots an arrow that grazes his face and gashes his left cheek. Summers inspects his wound with his hand and the rush of blood freaks him out, he looks up to find the man in green but he's disappeared.

* * *

Dig drops off Oliver at the mansion, Moira looks at him as he walks in the door, "We lost you at the courthouse this morning where exactly did you go?"

Oliver looks over at Diggle, who holds up one finger, Oliver nods, "Mom, I've been alone for five years."

"I understand that," she remarks.

"No mom, you don't I've been _alone_."

Oliver's mom nods, "Well I'm at least glad you have Mr. Diggle to keep you safe, I'm just nervous with this Robin Hood impersonating psychopath around."

"Mr. Queen is in good hands Mrs. Queen."

"Thank you Mr. Diggle," Moira nods as she exits the room. Oliver turns to watch her leave and he spots Thea dressed in bright orange attempting to sneak passed him.

"Where are you going?" Oliver asks.

"Somewhere loud where I can get drunk," Thea responds.

Oliver sighs, "Don't you think that dad would want this?"

"Dead people don't want anything, it's one of the benefits of being dead." Thea sneers.

"I was dead, and I wanted a lot." Oliver responds back.

"Except for your family," Thea returns, "You've been home a week, and all you do is avoid mom, ignore Walter, and judge me." Oliver flares his nostrils and sighs, Thea does the same, "Don't wait up."

* * *

Quentin Lance can't believe this, he has been called to investigate another hit but his vigilante on the same person that his daughter is prosecuting, "I owe you an apology Mr. Summers, so we come all the way out here and now it turns out you don't need to police after all."

Summers smiles, "That's what I've been saying."

"So I guess the 911 call from one of your security guards who actually made it out alive unlike Mr. Hunt's claimed that you were being attacked by a guy in a green hood and a bow and arrow was just a practical joke of some sort?"

Summers nods, "These guys like to fool around."

"Well I'd be very much inclined to believe and outstanding upstart business man like yourself, except one of my men found this…" Lance pulls out a green arrow from an evidence bag, "..at your docks. See there's this vigilante running around he thinks he's some kind of Robin Hood, he's robbing the rich trying to teach him lessons, and then there's this other guy who shoots black arrows who just likes to kill the rich after the green guy has taken all their money, I don't know for sure, but the point is that took down a man with Merlyn Family protection in this city without a trace of forensic evidence left behind, while you according to what I've read in the papers have no protection, so you can see that this can be a problem for you."

"Isn't this a conflict of interest detective?" Summers reacts, "After all, your daughter is suing me."

"I keep my emotions in check," Lance answers.

"Well I don't," Summers responds, "And you and your daughter don't want to know what I'm capable of when I get emotional."

Lance simply snorts and decides to walk away.

* * *

"As you can see we've modernized quite a bit." Walter Steele remarks as the Queen family steps out of the executive elevator.

"Wow," Oliver can only say as he sees the updated floor, "I remember coming up here when I was little, dad used to let me drink soda in the office."

"So that's why you've enjoyed coming," Moira smiles.

"The Queen Consolidated recent success has come from its new focus on diversification; we have been making impressive inroads in cutting edge fields like biotech and clean energy."

"Okay…" Oliver starts, "Um, that's nice, I barely understood anything you said."

Moira chuckles, "Look we would like to discuss something with you please sit down."

"Mom it makes me nervous when you ask me to sit down," Oliver pleads.

Moira and Walter both look at each other and Walter starts again, "The company is about to break down on a new applied sciences division, and we would like to honor your father by dedicating the building in his name."

"Nice," Oliver nods.

"And…" Moira adds, "And we'd like to make an announcement at the dedication, that you will be taking a leadership position in the company."

"No," Oliver responds immediately.

"Oliver you said that you wanted to change yourself when you returned, well you are Robert Queen's son." Moira starts.

"I don't need to be reminded of that," Oliver groans.

"Then start acting like it!" Moira blurts.

"What do you think I did while I was in Russia, get my MBA, I have no business running a company, Walter is doing an incredible job based on all the gibberish he was speaking before."

Walter nods, "Yes, thank you for that, but investors don't want me as the face of the company, and your mother married into the Queen's, you are a Queen by blood, and I know the transition has been hard for you but you are a Queen and it is your destiny to lead this company one day."

Oliver snorts in frustration, "If you want me in some role that shows my face to the media fine, but I have no right to be in charge of anyone."

Moira shakes her head, "You're a Queen yes you do."

Inside Oliver is delighted, he has just been able to provide himself a to run his operations for the Bratva, but on the outside he has to show novice, he pulls his hand over his short blond hair and sighs, "Fine, but no announcement, I'll stand up there cut ribbons, dig with a golden shovel whatever you want me to do, but I do not want an announcement or I will purposely say something dumb and stupid just to make both of you look bad for putting me in that situation."

Moira and Walter look at each other, "Understandable Oliver, we will give you all the time you need and when you're ready we will make that announcement."

Dig escorts Oliver out of the building and into his Bentley, once Oliver is in Dig goes to sit in the backseat on the other side, "That didn't take long."

Oliver sighs, "A little too fast for my liking."

* * *

_Oliver is grabbed by two men wearing black ski and pulled out of the dark room he had been living in for the past week. Or it at least felt like a week, it could have been a few days or a few minutes, all he knows is that he's hungry, thirsty, his head hurts, and he needs a bath. He is thrown into another dark lit room, this room's light source comes from a single light bulb that hangs in the middle of the room. Oliver sees the same man that killed his father standing underneath the light._

"_Tell me Mr. Queen, _Вы воин или рабом?"

_Oliver shakes his head, "I don't speak Russian, I know you speak English just speak English please."_

_The man laughs, and throws a Russian-English dictionary at his head, "You better learn Mr. Queen, because a man is no good in Russia if he doesn't speak Russian."_

"_Just call my house, my family has lots of money…"_

_The man lands a boot to Oliver's ribs, "I don't want the Queen's money, I have money, money means nothing to me, it's power, and I have power over you Mr. Queen. Now tell me Mr. Queen, how you like to live the rest of your life being a sex slave for the homosexual elite?"_

_Oliver shivers, "I wouldn't like that very much."_

_The man smiles, "Then you have one week to learn Russian, you will live in this room, you will be fed more, you will receive more to drink, in one week I will return, if you speak enough Russian I will keep you here, if you don't learn enough I will sell you out to highest bidder for one full night, is that understood Mr. Queen?"_

Oliver watches his morning news, the news is announcing to Oliver's dismay that Martin Summers will not testify in his trial, Oliver shakes his head, "немой ублюдок."

* * *

"Wait how did you get those?" Thea cries out from outside Oliver's room.

"Damn it, don't you knock?" Oliver snarls.

"No wait mom said there were scars but…" she pulls Oliver's shirt open, "Uh, Oliver what happened to you out there?"

"Oliver sighs, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Of course you don't," Thea scoffs, "You never want to talk to me about anything, except for my social life."

"Wait!" Oliver groans, "Where are you going?" Oliver asks in the closest thing he has to a parent voice.

"Why should I tell you?" Thea nearly pouts.

"Listen Thea," Oliver sighs once more, "I need to get better at talking about what happened to me there, but I'm not ready yet." He lets go of a breath, "Okay?"

"Do you have a second?" Thea asks. Oliver nods and she takes him to the two tombstones in the back of the manor grounds, "Mom and I used to come visit you two all the time, but about a month after the funeral she stopped coming, stopping talking to the two of you, she stopped talking all together, the house got so quiet I'd come out here and talk to you and dad, about stupid stuff, about what I was doing that day, what boy I had a crush on, and then sometimes I asked you, begged you to find your way home to me, now you're here but the truth is I felt closer to you when you were dead. Look I know it was hell where you were, but it was hell here too, you gotta let me in Ollie, you gotta let someone in."

So Oliver ponders for a moment, Thea was right, but he couldn't take the sympathy sadness pity act of his family he needed, someone who didn't have the best memory of him someone who did give him the opportunity to share his issues when he wanted. So here he found himself at Laurel Lance's apartment knocking on her door like he did some many times before.

"How am I supposed to stay away from you if you don't stay away from me?" Laurel responds to his appearance.

Oliver exhales, "If you haven't noticed, I make a lot of dumb decisions especially to those that care about me the most, I'm a jerk, before the island I was a jerk, now I'm just a damaged jerk."

"What's in the bag?" Oliver smiles, Laurel never put up with his words, she always gets straight to the point.

"It's cold in Russia, a lot, so I made a list of things I wouldn't do while I was in Russia, and then gave different people in my lives the honor of being my first with those things when I returned. You Laurel Lance get the honor and privilege of being the first…" Oliver pulls out a bag of Edy's from the paper bag, "…person to eat ice cream with me."

Laurel shakes her head and can't help but smile, there was a part of Oliver that no matter how much she wanted to get rid of, Oliver could always find that part that softened her like no one else could, he was her weakness and half of her hated that, and the other half liked it.

After sharing a bowl Oliver sighs, "My mother wants me to join the company, yeah the one thing that I never wanted to do, and she put the whole legacy thing on me."

"Oliver Queen, survived five years in Russia to attend board meetings and stock holder sessions." Laurel smirks.

"Sounds awful," Oliver jokes.

"It's like Oliver Queen purgatory," Laurel remarks, "It's the place you will go to prove if your soul is worth saving."

Oliver shakes his head, "My soul is not worth saving, for what I did to you alone, no one should have had to go through that."

"You apologized already," Laurel responds.

"And it will never be enough," Oliver adds, then he hears the sound, Oliver knows it immediately it's the sound of someone crawling up a fire escape. Oliver grabs the only weapon he can find, and ridiculously as it sounds it's a butter knife. Oliver pulls Laurel away from her couch, "Come on!" As they try to leave a man bursts through her door and starts unleashing loads of bullets at them, they make their way back around for the same man they were trying to avoid no crashes through the fire escape. The man only carries a pistol and he can't fire the weapon in time before Oliver leads Laurel to another room. As they scape to a new room he finds the Triad Queen standing in Laurel's foyer, "ебать," Oliver mumbles to himself. The man carrying the fully automatic weapons is ready to unload on them but Oliver's sense of hearing alerts him that Diggle is coming, he holds his position to give Diggle a clean shot and luckily his anticipation is right, Diggle takes out both armed guards with just a few bullets. The Triad Queen launches at Diggle's side and Oliver finally finds the right moment to unleash his butter knife. Oliver throws the knife over a ten foot expanse knocking the blade perfectly out of the Triad Queen's hands, Diggle then finishes her of with an execution shot to the head.

About an hour later Quentin Lance, arrives at Laurel's apartment, he thanks Diggle for protecting his daughter and then warns him that he just killed the leading member of the Chinese Triad, Diggle nods and says that no one has to know as long as he handles all the bodies. Lance nods in agreement. He then takes a few moments to unleash a few pent up thoughts to Oliver before embracing his daughter. Laurel tells him that he should head out and get the paperwork finished and that she's sleeping at his house tonight and she doesn't want to be alone. After he father leaves she whirls around to Oliver, "So apparently you did a lot of kitchen knife hunting in Russia?"

Oliver smiles, "It was a lucky shot."

"As much as you think I don't know, I _know_ when you're lying Oliver, I just failed to believe myself when you said there was no one else, because I thought I was being stupid about it, please Oliver don't take me for being a fool again."

Oliver nods, "I was alone in the woods for years, you learn to throw things to pass the time."

"My father is a hunter and he has hunting knives, they're weighted so you can throw them, kitchen knives aren't."

Oliver smiles once more, "Like I said I had a lot of time on my hands. Now I'm sure your father is waiting not so patiently to leave because for one he doesn't want to be near that queen," Oliver points to the body bag on the floor, "And he doesn't want you near this Queen, so I'm going to head in for the night, keep the ice cream by the way." Oliver then looks up at Diggle, "I guess were putting the bodies in the Bentley?"

Oliver and Diggle drove back the Queen Mansion, they "borrowed" a transit van that was hauling food into the compound and put the bodies of the Triad Queen and her hit men in the back. They drove to another parked car and stashed the bodies in the cabin. They loaded the trunk with dry ice, duct taped all the cracks to prevent any temperature from escaping and/or decomposition smell from escaping, and then drove to the steel factory. Martin Summer's had to go down tonight, that way it would disrupt Summers' port, and they could put him on the packaging manifest of the Triad's Queen boat trip to Russia where the Bratva would gladly take credit for the hit. Diggle could also claim that with Summers out of the way it was an easy favor to ask to pin him for the murder since he protected his daughter's life.

Oliver Queen: I gave Martin Summers a chance to confess and face a court's justice but he chose to go after someone I care about instead. He's still going to face justice, it's just going to be a different kind.

Martin Summers is packing all the money he can into a bag, "Triad bitch screwed up the hit on Lance, the Triad is going to eliminate every ounce of the smuggling operation including us. Tell Wallace to get the boat ready I'm leaving tonight."

"Wallace," the guard talks into the communication device, "Wallace you copy?"

"Wallace isn't here," Oliver states through the device, Summers slumps remembering the warning that the green hooded man made to him, "But I am."

Summers snaps his bag shut, "We need to move now!"

"Sir we got six men out there?" The guard questions.

"That's not enough, move!" Summers panics.

As Oliver descends down from the guards once alive position, the familiar sound of automatic weapon fire starts heading his way, "Любители," Oliver groans as he easily avoids the gunfire to put an arrow into one of enemies chest. He jumps along the scaffolding of the port using the heavy crates for protection. He finds another shooter and delivers that arrow through the man's throat. He hears the footsteps of the third shooter and jumps down to the floor level and then fires the arrow up at the assailant through his back and into his heart. The way he collapses notifies Oliver that he's no loner living. He runs along the floor and spots a fourth shooter before he could find Oliver and get him with a shot through the chest, _they all must die, I must protect Diggle._ He keeps thinking to himself, no witnesses could be left to say that what happened here was the act of The Hood, when they were done Diggle would come around and unload into the bodies using the weapons left over from the dead hit men sent to kill Laurel earlier. Oliver finds another shooter high upon an observation railing, he hits him with an arrow and the man falls thirty feet to his splattering death. With all six men dead or soon to be dead he find Summers trying to run in the darkness for his boat. As he makes his way through a corkscrew of a storage crane Oliver lines up his shot and delivers the arrow through his throat. Oliver calmy walks over to him, his voice box gone, he pulls out the arrow from his throat and stares down at his target, Я предупреждал вас." Oliver pulls the curved blade of the Triad Queen out from his belt he holds Summers head down and then slashes his throat with the knife, he then stabs the blade through his throat giving a puncture wounds on the opposite side of Summers' throat.

* * *

_The door to Oliver's dimly lit cell opens, Oliver hasn't slept in days, reading through the dictionary multiple times, trying to have Russian conversations with himself. The thought of being a sex slave scares him more than anything , more than his father's death. The man calmly walks into the room._

_ "_Я вам готов быть воином или рабом?" Then man asks.

Oliver exhales says a small prayer for himself before trying his best, "воин."

The man smiles, and then pulls out a pistol a delivers a bullet into his left shoulder, as Oliver screams in agony then man approaches him, "Warriors know how to deal with pain Mr. Queen, my men will bring you some tools to repair your shoulder, if you fail to do this correctly you will die. Вы просто стоило мне миллионов евро."

Oliver knew this was a test to see if he could concentrate on his Russian while in pain, he heard the words "you" and "cost" he guesses that someone paid a heavy amount for him to be a sex toy.

"Мне жаль."

* * *

**Just to let everyone know it's cold in Russia so Oliver wore a balaclava while there so he's wearing it here too. So a couple of changes to this piece, one Oliver does take the position of Queen Consolidated. Number two the Triad Queen and Summers died, this opens up Oliver's Bratva operations. Number Three, Laurel gets to mention about the famous butter knife throw. Next time we will go through a bunch of episodes as only pieces of them pertain to this story, but good news! Oliver meets an I.T. expert!**


	3. Damages and Legacies

**So this chapter is going to be a little different than the first two, while the first two were mostly based off one episode, this chapter will be based off **_**four.**_** You will also notice that the divide between the cannon world and this AU universe will really start to widen after this piece. Hope you all enjoy! Once again there is a lot of Russian in this story, I used Google Translate so if it's off I apologize**

**I do not own these characters…nor does the Bratva.**

* * *

**Damages and Legacies**

Oliver pushes the door open to his father's old steel factory in The Glades, "So what do you think? Great spot for a night club or what?"

"Sweet," Tommy Merlyn looks up at the high ceilings, "I got to tell you though, that if you're thinking of calling it Queens I don't think you're going to get the clientele that you are hoping for."

Oliver smiles and points to a lofted room on the second floor, "Private office..."

"For the private one on one meeting?" Tommy concludes.

"Hopefully the occasional two on one meetings," Oliver jokes.

Tommy laughs, "Man are you sure you want to do this? It's not like you have any experience in running…well anything." Tommy's phone rings, "Oh dammit, I gotta roll see you later man, nice place I like it."

As Tommy leaves Oliver turns to Diggle, "So what do you think?"

"It depends on what John Diggle you are talking to. John Diggle the black security guard would say that some people in The Glades would not appreciate a rich white guy opening a club where the disenfranchised live when they know that they won't see a penny of any of those earnings."

"If it's a successful business it will gentrify the neighborhood," Oliver responds.

Diggle nods, "Essentially kicking those that can't afford to stay, out." Diggle exhales, "As for John Diggle your associate, it will provide a cover on where exactly Oliver Queen spends his time, and you won't have to purchase any more old Japanese cars." Diggle and Oliver smile, "I'll keep a lookout sir."

"Thank you Mr. Diggle."

* * *

Oliver Queen: To my family, I am the brother and son that just returned home after being reported missing in Moscow five years ago. They don't know I came back with a mission, to punish those that attempted to destroy me. The men and women I target are dangerous, corrupt, and will do anything to maintain power, the power I plan to take from them slowly and painfully. In just a few short weeks the Merlyn Family saw two hundred million dollars disappear into thin air and the head that forms the Triad's snake was cut off, allowing my me and my partner to take a large portion of the drug market into the Bratva's control, into _my control._

* * *

John Diggle trots down the stairs as Oliver finishes the last set of power lifts using a set of massive cinder blocks. Once the set is complete Oliver slams the blocks to the floor smashing them all to pieces.

"You're cleaning that up," Diggle comments.

"Fair enough," Oliver remarks as he chugs a bottle of water. Diggle straightens his suit and slowly approaches Oliver.

"James Holder was killed last night," Diggle begins.

"Good, one less bidder for UNIDAC Industries," Oliver muffles through a towel, "Walter wants to acquire it, says they could use the technology to jump start the Applied Sciences division."

"Look at you Mr. Oliver Queen board member," Diggle jokes.

"If I got to play the part might as well get good at it," Oliver finishes drying off and puts on a white V-neck tee shirt.

Diggle sighs, "To tell you the truth James Holder's death wasn't the part that surprised me, it was how he died. He was killed with a 7.62 millimeter round laced with curare from an estimated space about a hundred yards away."

Oliver stops in his tracks and turns to Diggle, "Same specific calling card as…"

"My brother," Diggle concludes for Oliver, "That can't be a coincidence."

Oliver exhaled, "And what do you want to do about it?"

"Let's go get the ублюдок, The Hood is believed to be a vigilante for justice, a sniper in the city is something that The Hood should be tracking down."

Oliver shakes his head, "No, the more times that The Hood is used the bigger the chance that guys like Quentin Lance will put my return and The Hood's appearance together, no, The Hood only makes an appearance when it makes sense for business, going after a man that is eliminating competition for UNIDAC Industries is not a sound business decision."

"There's business and there is family Oliver, and I'm not talking about Bratva, I'm talking about кровь."

Oliver nods, "I didn't tell you that you couldn't go after him, I just said The Hood won't."

Diggle nods back, "Fine, but when I find him, I'm going to put a bullet in his head and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Oliver turns away from Diggle opening up his file on UNIDAC Industries that he was supposed to review three days ago, "I don't intend to."

* * *

_The door opened to Oliver's chamber, Oliver saw three men enter the room, they grabbed a weakened Oliver off the floor and pinned him to the wall. Oliver was too tired, too weak to fight them so he just glared out into the distance, he eventually noticed his tormentor. The man approached Oliver and examined Oliver's attempt at patching himself, Oliver couldn't bear the thought of using a needle so he attempted to close the wound with a series of bandages instead._

_ "что ебать это?" The man laughed, he then slapped the bandaging causing Oliver to scream in agony. "Mr. Queen, I am sure that you are tremendously weak right now, there's no doubt about it that you are dying, or you will die if you don't receive medical attention. Which means you failed my test, so I give you a choice Mr. Queen, do you choose to die here in this room, slowly and painfully. Or I can call a doctor in here to stitch you up and clean the wound, so then I can sell you to the highest bidder?"_

_ "Kill me," Oliver groaned._

_ "неправильно,"The man responded before punching Oliver in the face._

* * *

Oliver launches out of his bed, sweat covering his body, breathing heavily, he surveys his surroundings and is able to realize that he is in his bedroom, not in the dark initiation room back in Moscow. Not in the mood for sleep anymore he makes his way downstairs into the viewing area where he surprisingly finds Thea.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Thea asks.

"Nope," Oliver exhales and takes a seat on the couch next to his sister, "What are you watching?"

"Some more stuff on the sniper, he took out another bidder for UNIDAC Industries a few hours ago, between the hoods, not like gangster hoods, but men wearing hoods stealing money from people like us, and now there is a sniper that's targeting people like us, it makes it a little harder to sleep." Thea switches off the television, "So why can't you sleep?"

"Bad dreams," Oliver replies.

"About?"

Oliver doesn't want to mention what happened in the initiation room to his sister, she's already seen his scars she doesn't need to know how he got them, "Laurel," Oliver makes up.

Thea smiles, "So why don't you make a play? I mean what's holding you back besides going out of the country a week before your wedding, her finding out you cheated on her with multiple women during your engagement, her father who hates your guts, and you being a jerk to everybody since you've been back?"

Oliver nods, "Those are the top ones." He sighs, "I know that it may not seem like it sometimes, but I'm not the same person I used to be."

"Then start showing people, be yourself, your new self."

* * *

"Two great losses," Walter Steele sighs, "Both John and Carl were great titans."

"Titans that were looking buy out UNIDAC Industries," A detective mentions.

"Industries is a little bit of a misnomer, UNIDAC Industries is now looking more into alternative energy." Walter remarks.

"I think the point my partner is trying to make is that two men within a week were bidding against you lost their lives." Quentin Lance replies.

"Are you implying something Detective Lance?" Moira Queen threatens.

"Not implying," Lance mentions, "Just observing that the bidders for UNIDAC Industries are dropping like flies."

"And these veiled accusations aren't coming from the fact of your highly negative feelings toward our family."

"No offense Mrs. Queen, but I had to like your family just a little to let my daughter marry one, but that went so well."

"UNIDAC is subject to a liquidation auction, that means there are many prospective buyers, even if I or one of the bidders were killing off the competition they would have to do a lot more killing and in a short amount of time because the auction is tomorrow."

"Were just making the rounds with the interested buyers," the other detective mentions, "Let them know to be careful."

"Oh yes," Moira straightens herself, "And I'm overwhelmed at Detective Lance's concern for our safety."

"Well thank you for your concern gentlemen," Walter intervenes, "Our security consultant Mr. Diggle, is taking all the necessary precautions."

Lance nods, "Yeah, right, well if you need us were just a 911 phone call away."

* * *

John Diggle walks into a garage in The Glades, he was informed when returning to Starling of a safe house hidden in the basement of a garage, it didn't take long to find it once he knew who exactly who he was looking for, Alexi Leonov didn't exactly keep the safe house subtle, his sign was in Russian and the colors were the dark maroon and gold, colors that many Bratva believe to be the true colors of the organization.

"Я ищу Алекси Леоновым." Diggle begins.

An old balding man turns in his direction and Diggle waits for the man to get used to the fact that a black American is speaking to a Bratva in Russian, "нет здесь никто с таким именем."

"Не в вашем гараже," Diggle approaches him, "В подвале под." Then to Diggle's insult an larger but still older gentlemen approaches him and tries to pull a pistol on him, Diggle in one fail swoop disarms him by grabbing his wrist and snapping it backwards, an inch more and the man would have lost his hand, with the man reeling on the floor Diggle smiles, "Я боевик, я работаю на Oliver Queen, Я хочу видеть Alexi Leonov."

The balding man cautiously walks up to Diggle and bows his head, "Please to meet you." Leonov walks toward a door on the opposite end of the garage and Diggle takes the silent signal that he is supposed to follow, as they descend down the steps into the basement Leonov begins, "I apologize we meant no disrespect to a Bratva Warrior, particularly to an American one. So how can I be of assistance?"

"I…I mean Captain Oliver Queen is looking for a hired gun, someone the organization has used before, his calling card is a 7.62 millimeter round laced with curare."

Leonov shakes his head, "I know no man who uses such tools."

"But you can find out who does?"

Leonov pours two double shots of vodka and hands one to Diggle, "First we will drink to each other's health, then I will into the identity of this man you seek." Diggle holds up his glass and drains the clear liquid all at once. As Leonov finishes he gives a wry smile, "I will also confirm on whether you are Bratva Warrior and whether you are apart of Oliver Queen's brotherhood, should this not be the case, I will send my mechanic to kill you and your family."

* * *

Moira Queen strolls into her first husband's old office and second husband's current office on the executive floor, "Looks like someone forgot a lunch date with his wife."

"What do you mean," Walter questions, "Lunch isn't for another," He checks his watch and sighs, "Forty-five minutes ago, I'm so sorry."

Moira smiles, "It's alright the restaurant is holding our table, is there something wrong?"

"Compliance department just tagged something; 2.6 million dollars were withdrawn from one of our Vancouver subsidiaries."

"Are you meaning to say it was embezzled?"

"I don't think so, it's probably a book keeping error, but with the auction tonight compliance is obviously worried just in case we win and get audited."

Moira nods silently and sighs, "Well I'm glad I came to the office because I might be able to solve compliance's issue because I think I'm the culprit. 2.6 million is a rather specific figure, that's the exact amount, the company invested in a friends startup venture three years ago."

Walter flares his nostrils, "Is this venture legitimate or was it supposed to be off the books?"

"Walter you should know me better, I would never make that kind of mistake, look, after lunch I will call compliance and they'll clean it all up there's nothing to worry about."

Walter nods, "Okay, then let's do lunch." He follows behind Moira not wanting her to see his suspicious face.

* * *

Diggle and Oliver receive their burgers, fries, and shakes, the server smiles at them, "No cheese fries today Oliver?"

Oliver smiles, "I have a liquidation auction to attend tonight and I don't want to embarrass myself."

"Thank you Carly," Diggle smiles, Carly returns the smile and then heads back to the kitchen.

"You going to ask her out yet? She keeps eyeing you like she's waiting." Oliver laughs.

"Perhaps I'll make her manager when I buy this place fist," Diggle remarks at he attacks his burger.

Oliver looks up in surprise, "Really, I don't think Mr. Massive Pythons needs to buy the place to get in her pants."

Diggle shakes his head, "Has nothing to do with Carly, as you already know the food is amazing, we could start opening up multiple locations, and create another legitimate business for us."

Oliver nods, "It helps that our "shipping costs" for bringing in product reduced dramatically now that we reduced the competition." Oliver concludes, "If I can open a nightclub you can surely own an already well-established burger joint."

Diggle's phone rings, "Hey I got to take this." Oliver nods and concentrates more on his food while Diggle answers his phone, "So I checked out?"

"You did," Leonov answers, "His name is Floyd Lawton, I have address of where he stayed last time he was in Starling City, that is all."

"Let's hope he's a creature of habit," Diggle remarks, "Go."

"1700 Broadway, Bing Hotel, room 52, you will leave us out of this yes?" Assuming Mr. Lawton doesn't kill you first."

Diggle hangs up the phone and stares over at Oliver, "Looks like I'm taking my lunch to go."

* * *

_As Oliver awoke he realized that he's in the same darkened room but what was different is that he was restrained, against a pole for away from the single light bulb, his entire self was in complete darkness._

_ "Sleep well Mr. Queen?" His tormentor asked playfully, I've come to a realization, that perhaps your platinum-spooned-self had never received proper medical training, so I'm giving you another test, my friend Sergei, will be administering this test, if you at any point want to stop the test, Sergei will do so, then you will receive proper medical attention and we will sell you into slavery. If you pass his test we will let you stay here, Разве это справедливо?"_

_ Oliver snarls, "Я тебя ненавижу."_

_ The man laughed, "Very good Mr. Queen, he then slaps Oliver Queen in the face, Я надеюсь, что вы всегда делать." The man walked away and soon he could see a larger figure, he couldn't depict his face but he noticed the shine coming off the large machete that he was holding."_

_ "No please," Oliver begged._

_ "Do you want to stop Mr. Queen?" The man asked._

_ Oliver wanted badly to say yes, at this point was being sold as a sex slave really worse than all the torment? But his mouth remained shut, and soon he could feel the blade slicing into his abdomen the burning sensation and the immediate pain followed afterwards and the only thing Oliver could do was cry._

* * *

Diggle approaches room 52, he leaves the suit in the car and changes into a Kevlar vest, black shirt, combat boots and trousers, and a black ski mask. Two fully loaded pistols are in separate holsters around his waist while a third holster that supports his combat knife is tied around his right thigh. Diggle goes for element of surprise and kicks open the door firing a shot just over the head of Lawton, Lawton dodges the bullet and dives behind the bed. Diggle steps in the room but the surprise is on him as apparently Lawton has an automatic firing mechanism attached to his wrist, Diggle makes his way out of the doorway and uses the hallway as cover. Diggle figures the wrist mechanism cannot be very large so it must carry small magazines, after he hears eight rounds being fired at him there is a brief pause in which Diggle uses that time to fire a few rounds back. Floyd returns more fire which once again pins Diggle back in the hallway. After he hears the second set of eight unload he hears another interesting noise, a window crash. He goes into the room and sees that Lawton has escaped through the window of the hotel room. Diggle rushes to the window but can't spot him and doesn't want to leave himself to be exposed at the window, especially when curare is involved. He turns around and spots a laptop; he unplugs it and takes it with him. He makes his way back to his car, in slight disbelief that the hotel didn't bring security after the gunshots were fired. He starts the car, and calls Oliver on his phone.

"How was your meeting with Lawton?" Oliver snarls.

"How did you know?" Diggle answers.

"Leonov called me when he was doing his background check."

"You could have told me this over lunch," Diggle snarls.

"I told you, this is your deal, not mine, not Bratva, so I'm keeping out of it, I have to spend all day at QC today to prepare for the auction tonight."

"Fine, but I'm stopping by your office, I have something I want your I.T. Department to recover for me."

* * *

Oliver Queen strolls into the I.T. Department, after speaking with the supervisor, he reminds himself to fire the person as soon as he's allowed to, eventually he was referenced to person he intended to approach this matter in the first place. He arrives at the woman's cubicle and clears his throat, "Felicity Smoak?" The young blond quickly snaps around, golden blonde hair, bright lipstick, and a red pen in her mouth, Oliver unleashes his best "Oliver Queen" smile before introducing himself, "Hi, I'm Oliver Queen."

The presence of him startles her, "Uh, of course, I know who you are, your, Mr. Queen." She nervously laughs off.

Oliver shakes his head, "No, Mr. Queen was my father."

"Right but he's dead," the woman immediately recognizes what she says, "I mean missing, but you're not anymore, which means you can come down to the I.T. Department and listen to me babble which will end…in 3…2…1."

Oliver can't help himself, the corners of his lips rise up, and he releases a small through-the-nose laugh at the strangeness of this woman, he also can't help at looking at the woman's legs which are revealing themselves to him due to the woman's skirt hiking up while sitting, he was used to women hiking up their skirts when he arrives anywhere, but not anyone doing it unintentionally, there was something about her that startles him and it scares him that he can't pinpoint it. Oliver can't really remember the last time he was startled, better yet from a babbling blonde in his company's I.T. department, "I'm having some trouble, well rather my friend is having trouble with his laptop and I was told that you were the person to see." Oliver places the heavy duty laptop laced with bullet holes beside the woman's key board, "Apparently my friend spilled a latte on it this morning, and I'm trying to help him out."

"Really?" She remarks, "Because these look like bullet holes."

"His coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood," _what the fuck did I just say?_ Oliver thinks to himself as the blonde tilts her head slightly to the right staring at him probably thinking the exact same thing, Oliver Queen lives a lie, he's told lies for the Bratva for years, good ones, and yet he just said quite possibly the dumbest thing he ever said to a woman he's barely seen for two minutes, Oliver smiles trying to regain composure, "If there is anything you can salvage from it, I would really appreciate it."

The woman stares at him for a moment possibly pondering the stupidity of this moment until she nods her head, mumbles something and grabs the laptop.

* * *

_Oliver groaned in pain as his body decided whether or not to fall into unconsciousness._

_ "Amazing," his tormenter concluded, "You have a lot more resolve than I give you credit for, look at you now, you're looking and flopping around like a strung up рыба, I couldn't sell you now if I wanted to. So I'll tell you what, you survive the night, and perhaps I'll let you have some fresh air, how does that sound Mr. Queen?" The man nods into the darkness and he suddenly feels the restraints snap apart and he falls to the floor, groaning in pain once more._

_ "спокойной ночи Mr. Queen."_

* * *

In a matter of minutes, this Felicity Smoak manages to pull the hard drive out of the laptop, attach the hard drive to some mechanism that reads the information off of it, and minutes later a set of blue prints pop up on her computer screen.

"Looks like blueprints," Felicity reaches the same conclusion.

"Do you know what of?" Oliver asks.

"The Exchange building," Felicity answers, "It's where the UNIDAC Industries auction is taking place, you know the thing that you're attending tonight?"

"Ah, now I remember," Oliver adds.

"Shouldn't we not be discussing your friends personal hard drive information," Felicity sighs, "Look, I don't want to get into the middle of some Shakespearean drama thing."

"What?"

"Mr. Steele marrying your mom, Claudius and Gertrude, Hamlet?"

"I didn't study Shakespeare at any of the four universities that I dropped out of." Oliver quips.

Felicity inhales and exhales quickly in frustration, "Mr. Steele is trying to buy UNIDAC Industries and you've got a company laptop associated with one of the guys that he's competing against."

"Floyd Lawton," Oliver answers quickly.

"No," Felicity chastises, "Warren Patel, who's Floyd Lawton?"

"Apparently, he works for Mr. Patel, anyways you're right, we shouldn't be discussing too much about someone else's computer, and I'm sure my mother is wondering where I ran off to, thank you so much Ms. Smoak."

"Anytime," She stops, "Well not anytime, I wouldn't want you showing up at my apartment at two o'clock in the morning, well I mean, I mean no, anytime business hours is great."

Oliver bites his bottom lip to hold from laughing and then lets out a breath, "Actually there's one more thing, you see I had compliance today look for any issues in our company' s finances, and it turns out 2.6 million dollars is missing from the company's books, whoever did it also did a really good job of hiding it, so you seem like the person who likes to unravel mysteries?" Oliver raises his eyes to emphasize the question.

"I hate mysteries," Felicity responds.

"Well good, here's the file this needs to be done on the hush-hush no company computers separate Wi-Fi network, if you can find anything on where this money went I would greatly appreciate if you sent this to Mr. Steele "anonymously". " Oliver signals quotes around the word anonymously.

Felicity looks around and takes the file, "Sounds like fun, I'm your girl, I mean not your girl, but your girl for this…secret thing."

Oliver smiles again, "I know what you mean have a nice day Ms. Smoak."

"Same to you Mr. Queen." Felicity answers as she pulls her tablet out of her bag.

* * *

Quentin Lance makes his way to his car when he suddenly is pinned down on the hood of a police car, "Some of a bitch!" Quentin screams.

"Quiet," Diggle whispers through the voice modulator.

"You got a pair on you son pinning me down on a police car right outside a police station." Lance attempts to turn around but Diggle holds his face to the hood.

"Floyd Lawton is the one targeting, the buyers interesting in UNIDAC Industries, Interpol calls him Deadshot because he never misses you can look this up after I go."

"Bullshit," Lance mutters, "You're not going anywhere because I will make sure that I put a bullet in you for assaulting a cop."

"Warren Patel hired Lawton, I can't be sure of who he's targeting, it could be all the buyers, and I can't protect them in a space that big. I need your help."

"Professional help," Lance laughs.

"Lawton laces his bullets with curare, tell your men to wear Kevlar," Diggle jams one of Oliver's arrows into the hood of the car and drops the lap top next to Lance before he runs away into the darkness.

* * *

Oliver approaches the bar wearing his black suit and tie, he normally would be arriving to have a vodka or a scotch but instead he's gone to find his mother who at this point with him missing most of the preparations for the auction tonight, is probably seething at him. He walks up behind her and whispers in her ear, "Hi."

Moira turns around and from her look alone Oliver can tell that he's had it, "Excuse me," Moira turns to the bartender, "I'll be back for my third in a second, I need to talk to my son." Moira glares into Oliver's eyes, "I'm surprised you actually made it tonight seeing your hectic schedule seemed to take you out of half the meetings today."

"Mom, I messed up today, I made you a promise that I would be there and I couldn't keep it."

"Well that's nothing new for you, what's also nothing new is you bailing out so you could go find a cute blonde in I.T. to flirt with instead of living up to your responsibilities."

"How did you know?" Oliver asks.

"I know about everything that takes place in my building," Moira snarls, "Including the fact that we will have an opening in I.T. as of tomorrow."

Oliver's eyes bolt up, "No mom, you can't do that, she was recovering a hard drive for me, I was trying to find blueprints on dad's factory in The Glades and the I.T. supervisor referred me to her, just a coincidence that she's a young blonde." Oliver smiles, _that was a much better lie_.

Moira huffs, "Your nightclub, if you put as much effort into this company as you've put into your club plans these last two days…" Moira stops herself, "Look, I know we've had our difficulties lately about Walter and working for the business, but despite all my mistakes with you I always thought you and I had a connection, so can you imagine, just imagine, after being granted the miracle of having my son returned to me, that you seem to have little or no interest in being with me or this company."

Oliver sighs, _about what I expected, _"I'm sorry…"

Moira shakes her head, "No, don't bother apologizing, honestly Oliver there are times when I wonder why you bothered coming home at all." Moira turns to the bartender who hands her chardonnay and she saunters off. Oliver closes his eyes, balls his fists, releases them, and then looks at the bartender, "Glenmoranje on the rocks please."

"I got him," one of the officer's announces to Lance, "We have Patel in custody, still no sign of Lawton."

"Damn it," Lance murmurs, "Alright auction is starting in five minutes if he's going to make a move, he's going to do it now, because he has to take them out before they submit the bids." Lance starts encircling the room when suddenly he spots it, a red dot, aimed at Walter Steele, "Everyone down now!" The shot fires Lance is able to tackle Steel e to the ground, the bullet ends up hitting a server instead. Lance grabs Walter and pulls him to the elevators, "Keep your head down and follow me."

Oliver rounds up his mother and sister, he spots Diggle who's looking at Oliver in a way that only a killer would, Oliver nods at him, "Diggle is going to check on Walter, let's go!"

Diggle runs to the stairs and grabs a brown tote bag of a trashcan, he looks up at the camera in the stairwell and pulls the bag over his shoulder, he puts on his combat gear in a dark corner of the stairwell, and the fires a grappling gun in the adjacent tower where Lawton is firing his sniper from. Diggle swings over the twenty story gap and crashes through the window, Lawton drops the sniper rifle and begins firing his wrist gun once more, Diggle finds a column to hide behind that provides him cover from the barrage of bullets. Diggle learning his lesson from the last time in the hotel waits for him to fire his eight shots before moving to another column. Once Lawton's gun is empty, he pulls out his own pistol and begins to stalk Diggle moving towards his last known hiding place. Diggle approaches behind him and punches him in the back of the head knocking Lawton into a forward roll. He rolls out of it and fires a few rounds at Diggle chest but they are soaked up by the Kevlar. While Diggle winces in pain from the shots, Lawton reloads his wrist gun and fires a few more rounds sending Diggle into hiding again.

"Drop your guns," Diggle commands through a column in the darkness.

"I admire your work!" Lawton comments, "I guess you won't be providing me any professional courtesy."

"Not tonight," Diggle returns, "ты убил моего брата, так что я собираюсь убить тебя."

Lawton laughs and fires another round into the column, after the eighth bullet fires, Diggle turns out away from the column and fires a shot. He hears the bullet enter and exit and then he recognizes the familiar thud of a body slumping to the floor. He slowly turns away from the column and sees Lawton's body crumpled to the ground. Diggle slowly approaches the body, keeping his gun in a firing position just in case Lawton springs up, once he's within a foot of the body he sees a slight twitch in Lawton's neck, he then unleashes the entire round of his pistol into Lawton's head. With blood pooling out from all the headshots, Diggle makes sure he's dead by checking the pulse on Lawton's wrist, once finally satisfied he looks up at the sky, "Для тебя, мой брат."

* * *

Walter saunters into the parlor at pours a finger of Scotch into his high ball glass and downs the liquid immediately.

"I can see you're still spooked, you never drink at this time a night," Moira remarks.

Walter looks up at his wife, "It doesn't make sense that Patel targeted me, Patel and I have been friends for years, drinking partners even."

Moira sighs, "Betrayal is an awful thing to realize."

Walter shakes his head, "Yes, especially when looking at the financials of Patel's company his bid is miniscule compared to what Merlyn Global offered tonight."

"Maybe Patel was crazy enough, to think he could get everyone killed and leave him the only bidder."

"No," Walter pours a second finger of scotch, "No in my opinion Merlyn highly overvalued UNIDAC Industries, he paid five times the amount that we were offering and we were the second highest bidder."

"Good for UNIDAC," Moira laughs.

"You mean good for you since you own UNIDAC Industries," Walter remarks.

Moira turns to him, "What are you talking about?"

"When you mentioned to me your little startup investment of 2.6 million dollars, I was a little suspicious of you bringing family issues into QC, turns out, I had a file dropped on my desk that showed that the money was then forwarded from Vancouver to a Chinese dummy corporation which eventually filtered that money into a company that eventually turned into UNIDAC Industries. One hundred and fifty million made from a two and a half million dollar investment. So I assume you downplayed the worth of the company, to attract certain investors who had no business being there so you and Merlyn can gobble them up one by one, Merlyn pays you a hefty sum that you cleaned up through an auction bid, he gets to keep the technologies they're investing in, and the two of you split the companies in half? All while somehow pinning it on Patel? Brilliant I may add. I hope you now understand why I'm drinking in the middle of the night. It's very disconcerting to discover the person who you share your home, share your bed, and your heart, has been lying to you, so convincingly, and I would be a fool to consider all the things you have told me to be lies as well."

"Walter you're my husband," Moira says calmly fighting the tears coming from her face.

"Yes I am," Walter interrupted.

"Walter please," Moira begs, "You got to stop thinking this way, yes, Merlyn and I did an inside deal, I would pay the upfront cost, he would overpay in the bid in return to cover whatever other cost there was, the company is legitimately worth thirty million but it's really worth three times that, just not legitimately, so the only way to clean the money he owed me for the startup was to liquidate it and put it to auction. There he would put the bid in, I would get cost recovered plus fifty million and Merlyn gets the company. I promise you I knew nothing about the sniper."

Walter sighs, "I'm going on a business trip, I suspect that it's long overdue to inspect our holdings in Melbourne."

Moira nods, "And how long will you be?"

"I don't know, I guess betrayal _is_ an awful thing to realize." Walter whispers, he finishes his scotch and walks past Moira not saying another word.

Moira brushes the tears from her eyes and goes for scotch putting three cubes of ice in it that the night staff puts together for her, she then pours three fingers of scotch and takes a long sip.

"Night cap?" Oliver asks leaning against the door.

Moira closes her eyes, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long, I had to go pick up Thea, apparently she took getting shot at as a reason to get drunk at a bar that let her in underage because she's Thea Queen, so she's upstairs puking now."

"Thank you Oliver," Moira says.

"For picking up Thea?"

"No for taking charge tonight, you kept me and your sister safe." Moira sighs and turns to Oliver, "I'm sorry about what I said tonight."

Oliver shakes his head, "No, you were being honest."

Moira nods, "You know you and I used to talk, I used to know what you were thinking, but now even when you're home, you're somewhere else. I guess I just miss my son."

Oliver nods, "I miss you too, and I wish that…" Oliver pauses and then unleashes a fake smile, "Are you hungry?"

A short Bentley ride into The Glades later and both Moira and Oliver arrive at Big Belly Burger, his second time at Big Belly today but that lunch seemed like days ago not hours. As their food arrives, they both laugh at the spectacle of being in their finest and eating greasy food and nearly one o'clock in the morning. Moira pulls out her utensils and starts to cut her bigger when Oliver scoffs at her, "Mom! It's okay to get your hands dirty everyone once in a while, for me please."

"Alright," Moira jokes just happy to be with a son that's joking with her instead of the usually staunch version that's been around since his return, she bites into the burger and moans in pleasure, "Now that is a great burger." She smiles at Oliver, "Thank you for this."

"Anytime," Oliver smiles back. His phone buzzes in his coat pocket and he pulls it out to check the message. Oliver's phone buzzes in his pocket and he pulls it out, "I am so sorry to ruin our moment I got a scout in a rival club and he's calling me, I have to take this I'll be back asap."

Moira shakes her head, "This better be the best damn bar in the world."

Oliver smiles, "It will be because it's mine."

Oliver answers his phone as he walks out the door, "Has the deal been completed?"

"Yes, Mr. Lawton's upfront payment has been forwarded to his daughter as you requested and I have just received the after payment as you promised us in the deal."

"Very good, это было удовольствие, Mr. Leonov."

* * *

**Oliver you sneaky bastard! Apparently there is more to Oliver than just being the hood, so how did Oliver find out about the 2.6 million? Perhaps this has something to do with The Code? In the next chapter a Huntress appears… **


	4. The Muse

**Well it's been a week, I went on a short vacation, it sucked, and when I got back I wanted to get to work on the next episode but I was just so tired, I decided to give myself the rest of the week to recover. I just posted a new piece for Momentos it's short, and it's more Raylicity than I thought it would be but it's a fun read (at least in my opinion).**

**A longtime loyal reader of mine suggested I put the English translations next to all the Russian I'm using, I'm going to try it this time, hopefully it will help you understand better. Although don't expect me to do it every time because sometimes I may want what is said to be a mystery. **

**Now, the Huntress Episode! This episode will use episode 1.07 with some more continuous hints of 1.09. Enjoy!**

* * *

**The Muse**

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen, for five years I was trapped in Russia, and during my time there I had one goal, survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do this I must become someone else…I must become something else so that no one can know my plans. Plans such as hiring Floyd Lawton, Deadshot himself, to come to Starling City and take out some petty criminals so that I could draw attention to the auction of UNIDAC Industries, a corporation created by my mother to develop technologies for Malcom Merlyn. The code told me about the 2.6 million my mother siphoned out of Queen Consolidated to start the company, and I had a woman named Felicity Smoak dig up the necessary information so that I could deliver the information to Walter Steele the now CEO of my father's company. It's also fortunate that Floyd Lawton killed John Diggle's brother in a hit in St. Petersburg, so John put a bullet in his head after everything was done, which also allowed me to cover my tracks. For now, my family just believes I'm a novice getting my feet wet in the family business, little do they know, I know more about the family business than they'll ever want.

* * *

Oliver feels his earpiece buzzing in his ear and pulls over his Ducati to answer his earpiece, "Hello?"

"I'm supposed to remind you to pick up mother for lunch." Thea Queen sighs.

"I'm supposed to have lunch with her today?" Oliver groans.

"She left you like five messages," Thea answers, "Just bite the bullet and have a cobb salad with the woman alright?"

"You know Thea, sometimes it's difficult to realize which one of you two is really my mother." Oliver pops his earpiece to end the call, places his helmet back on and races to Queen Consolidated.

Moira Queen wants desperately to rid the man so that she can go to lunch with her son.

"Mrs. Queen, all I'm asking is just a few minutes so that I can talk to you about our proposal." The man presents himself, almost clinging to Moira Queen.

"If that's all it is than I can save us both the time, it's rejected."

"May I ask why?" The man persists.

Moira sighs and glares at the man giving more warning with her eyes than with her words, "Do I really need to answer that Mr. Capone? Now if you'll excuse me I have a lunch date with my son."

Oliver pulls his bike to a parking space opposite from the building and takes off his helmet, he waves to his mother, who waves back, when Oliver notices another motorcycle approaching his mother and the other man coming up the sidewalk, he then sees the rider of that motorcycle pull out a pistol from its jacket.

"Get down!" Oliver screams out as he runs toward his mother. The figure on the motorcycle unleashes a series of blast that enter through the man's chest, Moira falls to the ground. Oliver runs up to his mother, "Mom are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Moira pleads with her son.

"Are you sure are you hurt?" Oliver interrogates.

"Oliver I'm fine," Three armed guards exit Queen Consolidated and rush Moira and Oliver into the building.

"Who was that?" Oliver demands.

Moira shakes her head, "Somebody that wanted me dead, it happens more than you think Oliver. Luckily they hit Mr. Capone instead, one less slime ball in this city now, look at me I must have a concussion I sound like I would think that Robin Hood guy sounds like."

A few hours later they arrive at Starling City General, "Your mother is diagnosed with a grade two concussion, she should be fine going home as long as someone stays with her for a few days."

Oliver nods, "Thea did you get a hold of Walter?"

Thea shakes her head, "I tried but nothing."

Oliver sees detective Lance and his partner outside the door, "Thea watch over mom, I'm going to talk to detective Lance."

Thea smiles, "Yes dad."

Oliver walks out into the hallway, "Detectives have you gotten a lead on the shooter?"

Oliver turns to Lance, "My head of security will be here soon, I want a guard posted outside my mother's door until she leaves here."

Lance sighs, "Well you know that the Queens are at the top of my priority list," Lance states sarcastically, "But she wasn't the target, the guy she was with is mobbed up to the eyeballs, Bertinelli Family. I thought your mother was a little more discreet than that."

Oliver simply glares at the smirking Lance before he storms down the hall.

* * *

_Oliver was up against a wall, it was the only position that his body could settle into without thinking he was going to pass out. He fell asleep shortly after, he didn't remember much, perhaps he passed out anyway. The familiar light of the door opening shown through and once again his tormentor stepped inside._

_ "Доброе Утро (Good Morning), Mr. Queen, мы все еще живы сегодня? (are we still alive today?)"_

_ All Oliver could manage was simple grunt, the man turned his head in his direction, "Mr. Queen, I am quite impressed, you in fact did survive, Sergi owes me a few Rubles after this." The man lifts his hand into the air and moves his index and middle finger toward Oliver._

_ "What are you doing?" Oliver groaned out._

_ "I'm getting you out of this room, just like I promised Mr. Queen."_

* * *

Laurel Lance opens the door and to her surprise not only is the pizza man there with her mushroom pizza, but Tommy Merlyn is also there, with takeout of his own.

"Technically I was here ten seconds before this guy." Tommy smiles.

Laurel sighs, and pays the pizza man and lets Tommy inside, "So Tommy what brings you around here so late?"

"Well I rightly thought that you would be at home working tonight, I also assumed that you might be hungry, which apparently I was right on both instances."

Laurel turns toward him, "I may not need your takeout because this is a mushroom and olive pizza from Mario's."

Tommy groans, "Oh that is a DAMN good pie."

Laurel places the pizza box on her table, "Alright what do you have to offer?"

"Spicy tuna on crispy rice from Toro?"

Laurel groans and snatches Tommy's bag, "Damn you Merlyn, I hope sushi was all you had in mind."

"Uh, well there's one thing that I wanted to ask you"

"And what's that?" Laurel quickly responds.

"Will you go out with me?" Tommy smirks, "Like on a date."

"You brought me dinner to ask me to dinner?" Laurel jokes.

"I also threw you a really big charity gala."

"See I thought you through it for the hundreds of people that would benefit."

"Yeah yeah, hundreds of people, plus one more."

"Tommy," Laurel couldn't help but laugh even if she knew that what Tommy wanted her to do in the first place.

"I know this is happening in the wrong order," Tommy starts, "First were friends for a really long time, then were friends with benefits for a brief amount of time, extremely excellent benefits I may add, now I'm just hoping we can be two people sitting at the same restaurant, at the same table, at the same time, when I say it like that it doesn't sound so scary does it?"

* * *

Oliver does his best to take out his family frustrations on his practice dummy, he had revenge in mind but he wanted to see it done his way, not with some amateur on a motorcycle in broad daylight during lunch traffic, plus now this new distraction would pull him away from his operations.

"Oliver your mom was nearly killed, it's probably best that you head home and care for her as the man of the house now," John Diggle attempts to reason.

"Unfortunately, my mother wasn't the target," Oliver steps back from the dummy and walks over to one of the laptops, "This man was, Paul Capone, he was trying to close a deal with her when I arrived this afternoon, Capone works for Bertinelli Construction, and Frank Bertinelli."

"The mob boss," Diggle finishes.

"I did some digging," Oliver continues, "Capone wasn't the first member of Bertinelli's crew to have been hit."

"It's just digging," Diggle reminds Oliver.

"Bertinelli has a lot of enemies, the best way of trying to figure out who's trying to target his organization, is to get inside of it."

"Why does it matter?" Diggle remarks, "You didn't care when Floyd Lawton was taking out buyers for UNIDAC industries left and right, why does it matter now that someone is taking out members of the Bertinelli family? Perhaps still deep down inside you can't get over the fact that Moira Queen is still your mother."

"Believe me Diggle, that, has nothing to do with it, and the difference is in this case, is that the code showed that the auction was just a farce, so Lawton taking out numerous pawns didn't really matter when the point was revealing the farce in the first place, and then exploiting it. In this case, we need to identify who this killer is and use them to our advantage, they obviously know things, and once we figure out that information we can once again exploit it."

* * *

"Detective Lance?" Quentin Lance looks up from his desk to see a deputy holding a packaged envelope, "Sign here please."

Lance quickly signs the package and surveys it for a few moments, he notices that there is no return address posted, he wonders for a second if it's a great idea to open it being that he's a lead detective in organized crime, but he figures if it's a lethal, Laurel would sue the pants off them for not protecting him in the first place, he rips open the envelope and pulls out a smartphone. Immediately at the point that he holds it in his hands, the phone rings, revealing a blocked number, curiosity gets the best of him and he answers.

"I had nothing to do with the murder of Adam Hunt," a modulated voice begins.

Lance grimaces, "Of course you didn't, but you're little boy in the dark suit did."

"I have no idea who that is, but for the record, I'm not exactly grieving." The voice answers.

"Neither am I," Lance responds back, "Guess you weren't too upset about Paul Capone's death either. You see what you've done, you vigilantes don't see things through, someone like you gets on the news and now everyone wants to take the law into their own hands."

* * *

"I agree, and that's why I'm going to stop the shooter, so I'll make a deal with you detective, I give you the information on the shooter, and you give me the information on the other archer. Then you can take the shooter down, and I'll take the archer down, think about it, call me, the number is programmed into the phone."

* * *

Thea Queen descends down the stairs in a short gold and black dress.

"Speedy!" Oliver yells out , "Where are you going may I ask curiously?"

"Clubbing," which means I have to leave because the Queen mansion isn't a club."

Oliver sighs, "I really need to go out tonight, I thought you were watching mom."

Thea glares at her brother, "I watched her all day, I thought you were getting the night shift?"

"I'm sorry, but this thing, it's important." Oliver responds already preparing himself for the reaction he's going to get.

Thea snarls, "You know sometimes Ollie I just don't get you, and by sometimes I mean never."

Oliver smiles, "You're actually not the first person to say that to me today."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Tommy then walks in the front door, "Thea nice dress where you headed?"

Thea glares at Oliver, "Upstairs, apparently."

"Hey I heard about your mom, is she alright?"

"Yeah," Oliver responded shortly, "Doctor says she's gonna be fine," Oliver swipes his keys to his Bentley, "I gotta business thing tonight, for the club."

"That's great," Tommy answers, "But can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah sure, but make it quick, I'm already running late."

Tommy smiles, "No offense Oliver, but if someone is expecting you, than they are probably going to expect you to be late, so about what I came here to talk about you with, I just didn't want you to find this out from somebody else, that someone else especially being Laurel," Tommy sighs, "Were going to dinner, as in a date."

Oliver smiles, "That's good, Laurel deserves someone special, and so do you."

Tommy smiles, "Thanks man."

Oliver smiles back, "I gotta run to this thing."

"Absolutely, I'll talk to you later."

Oliver turns back around, "Oh and Tommy, if you hurt her I'll snap your neck."

Tommy tenses up and then Oliver smiles, "I'm just kidding." He pats him on the shoulder and heads out the door.

* * *

_Oliver forgot how cold, "outside" really was. The burst of frigid air colliding with his newly stitched wounds provided Oliver with a new kind of pain he can add on to his list. It wasn't as bad as "being fileted with a machete" pain, but it was up there for sure._

_ "Ты хороший человек (You're a good man)," his tormentor began, Oliver wanted nothing more than to break through the binds that lashed his hands together and choke the man out with his bare hands, or at least attempt to. "Behind the privileged upbringing and porcelain veneer, есть человек внутри есть (there's a man inside there), when I received you as my payment, I knew I really couldn't sell you as a sex slave, you're image would have been splashed in the media the first time you were in public, no so instead I made you mine, I got to toy with you, torture you, and yet you refused to give up. So answer this question for me Mr. Queen, if I can't make a profit off of your sale, and I can't get any more enjoyment out of you myself, how am I supposed to get my return on investment hm?"_

_ "Offer me back for ransom, my mother would pay anything at this point."_

_ The man laughed in his face, "Вы растяпа дерьма (You sad sack of shit), you don't even realize what your mother has done, haven't you? Your father the patriarch of the Queen Family is missing so is his heir to the throne, who does that leave in charge? Who do you think had knowledge of this deal? That's right your mother, she saw the opportunity, she took, it she knew of the exchange your father was making with you, and she then offered us a deal, if we killed your father and you, she'd close down her St. Petersburg affiliate so that we could take it. What your mother didn't think of however is that we could also profit from you Mr. Queen. In order to do that we had to see if there was actually a man underneath all that privilege. So without a doubt you have proven your worth to the Братва (Bratva)."_

_ Oliver turned to the man, "Bratva?"_

_ "Yes, organized crime, you have just passed the most intense initiation anyone has ever dealt with, your scars will be proof to everyone that you're a not a man to be fucked with, and with that I hand you over to your new possessor, Yvgenny Feodorov."_

* * *

Oliver arrives at Frank Bertinelli and is surprised to see that he answers the door himself, clearly he doesn't see Oliver as much of a threat to his livelihood.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet me at my home." Bertinelli begins.

"My father used to say that living rooms make the best conference rooms." Oliver smiles back.

Bertinelli laughs and invites him for a drink, Oliver looks up and notices a young dark haired woman, wearing a short black dress, and very high heels for someone walking around their house, Oliver pauses to observe the woman he simply looks at him and continues walking.

"So Oliver," Bertinelli smiles at him as he hands him a neat glass of scotch, "I was surprised to hear from you, it's been my impression that you weren't going to be involved with your family's real business."

"Apparently there were a few catchphrases that I've missed while I've been away for five years, one of them being lame stream media," both Oliver and Bertinelli share a laugh, "The press never gets anything right."

"Oh I know a thing or two about that." One of Frank Bertinelli's managers gets a phone call an leaves the room. "So Oliver I'll be blunt," Bertinelli starts again, "I want the contract to build Queen Consolidated's new Applied Sciences Division."

"And I'm inclined to give it to you." Oliver answers quickly, trying to make himself seem amateurish.

"Your mother wasn't quite so enthusiastic," Bertinelli smiles, "How is she by the way?"

"She's recuperating at home thank you."

"What a terrible thing that happened." Bertinelli sighs.

"And I was very sorry to hear what happened to Paul Capone."

"Paul was a good friend," Bertinelli rubs his eyes, "He's a good man," Bertinelli sighs, "The violence in this city, sometimes I wonder why I stay."

"I had the same thought," Oliver adds.

"So why'd you come back? After Russia, you could have settled anywhere in the world."

"Because Starling City is my home," Oliver answers.

"Non importa dove si gira sarai sempre finisce in casa," The dark haired woman from earlier walks into the room, "No matter where you turn you always end up at home."

Bertinelli smiles, "Oliver this is my daughter, Helena."

Oliver stands up and offers his hand, "Hello."

Helena shakes it, "Nice to meet you." She turns to her father, "I'm heading out."

"Take one of the guys with you," Bertinelli demands.

"I can take care of myself," Helena responds.

"I wasn't asking sweetie," Bertinelli counters.

"Frank," Bertinelli's assistant walks back in the room, "That meeting you requested, he can do it, now."

Oliver turns to Bertinelli, "I can come back another time."

Bertinelli shakes his head, "No, no, no, no," He looks at his daughter, "Let's excuse us for a moment would you?"

Helena walks out into the dining room, "Oliver Queen the rich man's Lindsey Lohan."

Bertinelli sighs, "Look um, I've got to go this other meeting, so I need someone to take him to dinner."

"So you pimp out your daughter?" Helena glares.

"No, I'm asking you to close a business deal. A reminder that the family business is dying and that we need this contract and Oliver Queen can give it to us, please sweet pea, for us? For me?"

Helena does nothing but snort.

Bertinelli smiles, "That's my girl, Oliver?"

Oliver enters the room, "Oliver something's come up, but Helena would love to take you to dinner, to discuss the deal further."

Oliver turns, knowing that this meeting has just become extremely awkward, instead of being new to business Oliver, he now has to be playboy Oliver as well, "Oh," Oliver makes himself look disappointed, but not enough to insult the Bertinelli's daughter, "I was hoping to be speaking with you."

"Well as you speak for you family, my daughter also speaks for ours."

Oliver sighs, "It's really not necessary," he stops himself, without a doubt Bertinelli's daughter is attractive, and he hasn't been with a woman since he's been home, but this was not the circumstance he wanted his first date to be, a mob bosses daughter, not even Ollie would be comfortable with that.

"No worries, it would be my pleasure," the woman answers back.

"Are you sure?"

Bertinelli shakes Oliver's hand, "I look forward to working together." Bertinelli walk away while the to look at each other, Oliver finally offers his hand to lead her out the door and she walks out first.

* * *

A phone next to Moira Queen's bed starts ringing, she sees the number and sighs, "Thea I need to take this could I have some privacy just for a moment?"

"People do realize you almost died right?" Thea grumbles.

"Unfortunately not, please Thea, I'll keep the call short, can't do much with a scrambled brain."

Thea gets up, "When Walter gets back I'm going to kill him myself."

Moira answers the phone, "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry to hear about your husband's disappearance, wow, when and where have a said that before?" Malcom Merlyn begins, "I want to hope that this is merely a coincidence that your second husband left right after the auction, and right after a little birdy told me that he was snooping around a 2.6 million dollar transaction."

"He doesn't know the true ramifications of it." Moira answers.

"We've come too far, and we're too close to stop now, if Walter Steele has knowledge of the information that is hidden behind the code than something must be done about it do you agree?"

"Yes I do," Moira answers stoically, "But it's a moot point, he knows nothing, he thinks that is was just a shady business deal, and he thinks one of us hired the sniper, that's it, I swear."

"Patel is too soft to make that move, never the less, he must pay the price, the others must know what happens when they interfere with our business, including your husband, this is your last warning."

* * *

Immediately upon entering the restaurant the owner begins to gravel towards the two, both obviously know that it has nothing to do with them.

After the owner finally leaves the two alone Helena sighs, "I heard about your mother's accident, is she going to be alright?"

"She's going to be fine," Oliver comments as he tucks his napkin in his lap.

"So," Helena begins as he attempts to stare at the menu, "Why would you want to go into business with my father? You know who he is and how he made his money."

"I've grown up with it like you, I take it that you don't approve of your family's enterprises?"

"We share a name, that name defines us and we chose if we want to live by it or not, you've already made judgments about me as I have made judgments by you on your name only."

"Right," Oliver smiles, "I'm the rich man's Lindsey Lohan."

Helena intakes a breath, "Sorry," Helena nearly squeaks.

Oliver smiles to ensure her he's not offended, "That's okay, you won't be the last to think of me as that."

Helena plays with her pendant and then sighs again, "Hey can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," Oliver answers.

"I know it must have been hell for you," Helena begins, "Stranded in Russia for five years, but um," Helena then can't help but unleash a smirk.

"But what?"

"Was there ever a day, where you were just, happy to be away from everything, no pressure from your family, no need to be the person everyone expects you to be, was there ever a day when…"

"When I didn't feel lost," Oliver interrupts, "I felt free, more than once, and those are the days that I miss." Oliver answers, his mind starts to remember a time where he _did _actually feel that way, but he couldn't think of one. However the answer seems good enough for Helena as she unleashes another smile. The two talk through the closing of the restaurant when Oliver notices the pendant Helena keeps massages. "That's beautiful, your cross."

Helena unleashes a heavy breath, "It's a gift from my fiancée."

Then it's Oliver's turn to unleash a breath, for a moment he pauses to control the anger in him for letting himself be played, "I didn't know you were engaged, I'm sure he wouldn't approve of you in public with someone like me."

"I'm not anymore," Helena wipes her face, "He died."

For a moment a brief sense of relief washes over Oliver until he actually realizes the situation he's in, "I'm sorry."

"Me too," Helena bites back, "You had Russia, I had him, those are our crucibles."

Oliver smiles, "Boy it's nice to be with someone, that I can be myself with."

Helena smiles and then pulls it back, "It's nice to be with someone who knows how hard it can be."

Oliver feels his phone vibrate he sees the number and sighs, "I'm sorry I have to take this, 'Hello?'"

"Hey it's Dig, Bertinelli has a crew at the docks, I think they're trying to make a move on it with the Triad down, you got to get down there now."

Oliver hangs up the phone, "Helena I have to go, it's something to do with my mother, otherwise I would love to stay with you."

"And I would like that," she coos.

Oliver smiles feeling his body chill for the first time since he's returned to Starling, Oliver places some cash on the table, Helena shakes her head, and massages her hand across his, "Uh, ah, my father would kill me if he found out I made you pay."

Oliver smiles and stands up leaving the cash on the table, knowing that Bertinelli would still appreciate that he tried to take care of his daughter, "I have a confession to make," Oliver begins as he buttons his coat, "I didn't really want to go out with you tonight."

Helena smiles, "That makes two of us."

Oliver smiles, "But I'm really glad that I did."

"That makes two of us," Helena whispers. Oliver turns to head out the door, "Oliver?" Helena stops him, "Be careful with my father."

Oliver nods and exits the restaurant, already knowing full well Frank Bertinelli's capabilities.

* * *

Warren Patel exits his shower only to see what he hopes is only a nightmare or a vision, that's when the arrow pierces through his heart, and the last image he sees before he falls to the granite floor his bathroom is that same nightmare.

Bertinelli's assistant is holding the new dock manager at gunpoint, demanding he reveal the access codes to the bank accounts that run the docks, he cocks the gun back only to see the gun fly out of his hands after being struck by an arrow. Oliver is controlling the situation until he sees the same gunman, black leathers, dark helmet and visor and all start unloading bullets in all directions, this allows Bertinelli's assistant to escape, Oliver growls at the gunman and charges at him, Oliver is able to use another arrow to rid the shooter of their gun as well, Oliver notices quite quickly that without a gun the assailant is practically useless, he is able to free the gunman of their helmet to revel none other than Helena Bertinelli. Oliver simply pauses in shock, which allows Helena to escape to her motorcycle and drive off.

* * *

"Что в ебать она думает? (What in the fuck is she thinking?)", taking on the entire Bertinelli family? Is she insane?"

"Since when did you ever worry about the wellbeing of those that are taking out the competition, oh when you go on dates with them, and when they look like Helena Bertinelli."

"Dig I can get it whenever I want, that's not the issue."

Diggle gets up from his seat, "You may be able to lie to your family, but don't bullshit with me."

Oliver turns away from Diggle as he goes to cool off, his search program on the location of a certain gravesite has returned and Oliver takes his keys to the Ducati making sure to avoid Diggle on the way out. A few way over the speed limit minutes later he arrives at Starling City cathedral where Helena Bertinelli is kneeling by the grave of Michael Stanton, "Helena?" Oliver starts.

Helena who is still dressed in her leathers, looks up, "How did you find me here?"

"I'm Oliver Queen I know people, so I assume this is your fiancée?"

Helena nods, "Yeah."

"You said that losing him was your crucible, that it changed you, you didn't say how."

Helena grimaces, "When you love someone, as much as I loved him, with all of your heart, you can't just turn that emotion off when they're not there anymore, you still feel things as deeply, and if it can't be love that you feel, than it becomes hate."

"Hate for who?"

"Oliver," Helena shakes her head, she approaches him and then walks off, "You should stay away from me." But just as Helena begins to walk away a black van stops in front of the cathedral, Bertinelli's assistant exits, a large bandage is over his head and a gun is in his hand.

"Get in," he yells at her, Helena does not resist, but then one of the men grabs Oliver as well and throws him violently in the back of a van. They are driven to a warehouse in the Glades and are tied to chair, Oliver laughs briefly wondering how many times he's going to end up in a Glades warehouse tied to a chair.

"My father is going to kill you for this," Helena begins, the assistant smiles and then backhands her across the face.

"I've wanted to do that for years," The assistant begins, "You spoiled bitch, I knew it was someone from the inside waging war against your father and me, I just never thought it would be this inside." The assistant holds up the cross, "You left this at Russos."

"You're a smarter man than I give you credit for," Helena remarks.

The assistant is going in for shot number two, until Oliver interrupts, "Look let's talk business my mother would certainly be willing to pay you a lot of money to release us." Oliver knows it sounds bad, he doesn't care he's just buying some time to release himself from the bonds, again.

"This isn't about money richy rich, this is about loyalty."

"This also has nothing to do with him," Helena adds.

"Then what does it have to do?"

"My father had Michael murdered." Helena answers.

The assistant laughs, "Of course he did, he didn't want you to know the truth, your rat of a fiancée was gathering evidence, he was talking to the fucking FBI, the love of your life was going to destroy your father."

Bertinelli smiles, "You're wrong."

The assistant just shakes his head, "I found a laptop in his bag, Helena, everything that could send your father and I to prison for the rest of our lives was on it."

"That computer was mine!" Helena screams, "Michael wasn't the one talking to the feds, I was."

"You," the assistant snarls.

"My father is a monster, he doesn't care who he hurts to keep his money and power and I wanted it to stop."

"Well then it's your fault Michael is dead," the assistant concludes, "Not your father or me for carrying it out, yours."

Helena snarls back, "You shot Michael."

The assistant grabs Helena by the hair, "In the chest so he knew it was me," he then pulls out a gun from his coat, "Just like this."

"Идеальное время (Perfect timing)," Oliver grunts as he frees himself from the bonds and tackles the assistant, the three other men pull their weapons out, but they are quickly met with flanking gunfire and go for cover, Oliver breaks the assistant's arm and takes the gun from him freeing Helena afterwards. Helena then immediately knocks Oliver in the back of the head and steals the gun back, she fires a round of shots at the assistant, a little bit later three more bullets fire from the second floor of the warehouse finishing the others. Oliver looks up to see Diggle, on the second floor, he simply shakes his head and leaves the warehouse.

Oliver turns back to Helena, Helena is looking at him with tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry no one can know my secret, she turns the gun on Oliver but Oliver knows better and as she pulls the trigger nothing comes out. Oliver walks over and removes the gun from her hand, "And no one will."

* * *

Moira Queen feels a hand caress her forehead and she opens her eyes to see her husband Walter Steele, "When did you get back?"

"Just now," Walter smiles.

"I'm so happy to see you," Moira sits up in her bed, "But did you come home only because you found out I was hurt?"

"No," Walter answers definitively, "I was already on my way when Thea called. I actually came home because I miss my wife."

Moira nearly tears up and caresses Walter's face delivering a kiss to his lips. Oliver sees them from the hallway embracing and realizes at that moment that someone else needs support as well.

Oliver walks away and sees Thea, "Is she alright?" Thea asks.

"She's gonna be fine, Walter's home." Oliver smiles.

"Look I'm sorry, I was a bitch with you earlier." Thea starts.

"There were a few times, can you be more specific?" Oliver jokes.

"Don't push it," Thea smiles.

"Don't worry you weren't a bitch," Oliver responds, "At the hospital you were a little, I have to admit, but just a little bit."

Thea releases a laugh, "Look, I'm just worried about you, you seem really lonely. We all have our secrets Ollie, and clearly you have yours, and it's fine if you don't want to share them with us, but I really think you should share them with someone." Thea kisses Oliver on the cheek and proceeds to enter her mother's room.

* * *

Helena Bertinelli exits out of her shower wearing a red silk robe, as she goes into her bedroom of her father's spare condo downtown she sees him, "I'd ask you how you got in here, but the Starling City vigilante comes and goes as he pleases doesn't he?"

Oliver turns to her not wearing his gear, "How'd you know?"

"I saw you fight, then I saw your eyes, Russia changed you in ways that only someone like me can understand."

Oliver shakes his head, "No, what you're doing right now, I know that it feels like justice but it's not, it's revenge."

"Sometimes, revenge is justice." Helena growls back.

Oliver sighs, "Your father killed your fiancée."

"And what did your father do to you? Isn't the man in the hood fighting to set things right? Why is your vendetta more valuable than mine, were the same you and I?"

Oliver shakes his head, "No we're not."

Helena shakes her head, "Hiding in plain sight, concealing our anger with smiles and lies, don't judge me Oliver, were the same and you absolutely know it."

Oliver squints at her, "Why are you crying?"

Helena pauses, "I don't know, maybe it's because I've been alone in my hatred for so long, it feels."

"он чувствует себя так хорошо, чтобы сказать правду." Oliver interrupts before locking his lips onto hers, she cries at first before all her feelings consume her and she kisses back with all emotion.

* * *

**So an interesting concept brought along by Helena Bertinelli, Helena only knows Oliver as the vigilante, she doesn't know about his other secret that he is a Bratva Captain as well, knowing her hatred of her father's business, how will their relationship be affected if the truth gets out? Will it get out at all? Or is Oliver simply using his vigilante persona to manipulate Helena to get inside and take over Frank Bertinelli's operations? Or is it Helena Bertinelli the one that is pulling the strings?**


	5. Vendetta

**Well hello again everyone, and happy new year to everyone (early or belated or on time whenever I publish/you read this). This piece is essentially part two of the Oliver and Helena story, in this piece The Huntress will be developed a little differently. This piece uses season 1 episodes eight and nine.**

**Also I decided to have a little fun with the Mature rating…because why the hell not.**

**As always I don't own anything…**

* * *

**Vendetta**

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen for five years I was trapped in Russia, and during my time there I had one goal, survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do this I must become someone else…I must become something else.

* * *

The desperation in both of their kisses leads to no tenderness, just a form of painful passion, their mouths collide with such a force that neither of them doubt they could have suffered dental damage, their tongues both violate each other's mouths grazing over as much of the surfaces as they possibly can. Oliver then lifts Helena up from underneath her ass and slams her onto the bed, he pins her down and while Oliver pulls her robe apart revealing all of Helena's nakedness, Helena begins unveiling Oliver as well, when she sees the scars, tears well up, she grazes over them with her fingertips. It's as if that moment slows them down, the ferocity turns to tenderness as if they both communicated by touch that they understand one another's suffering. Oliver begins to worship Helena's body with her lips in a matter of minutes Helena is done with the foreplay, and she lines up Oliver herself. She lets out a moan when Oliver penetrates her, as Oliver's size is bigger than what she was used to with Michael. Once she adjusts they mirror each other's movements, both Helena and Oliver again searching the other trying to get deeper into each other. Finally the friction of their closeness combined with Oliver's size send her into climax and Oliver follows a few minutes after.

They both cuddle into one another; Oliver eventually turns onto his stomach and places his hand underneath the pillow mimicking the way he slept in Russia, except that there isn't a pistol underneath it. Helena wraps around him and presses her head against his left shoulder blade and the both fall asleep in short time. A few hours later Helena wakes up, she tries her best to rise without much movement so that she doesn't startle Oliver. She finds her robe on the floor and puts it back on, she then goes into her night stand and pulls out a revolver and points it at Oliver. The slight click that the gun makes wakes Oliver, as his senses are always on full alert, he turns to her and looks at her in bewilderment.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Oliver snarls.

"I should ask the same," Helena responds, she points the gun at Oliver's Bratva tattoo, "The Russian you speak, now the Bratva tattoo, did you really think I was that stupid not to know what that was? You're not dealing out justice, The Hood didn't arrive at the shipyards the other day to stop my father, you did it to protect your territory, you're doing business for the Bratva, you're just as bad as my father, and for a second I fell for all your lies."

Oliver senses that Helena has no objection to firing upon him, but he also knows that she is a novice, so he simply throws a pillow at her, she dodges it by instinct even though it's harmless and this gives Oliver plenty of time to pin Helena to the ground and push her gun away. "Now listen to me before you get yourself killed, you kill me and your father takes the ports, he regains all his power and you won't get a sniff at him. With my organization in control of the ports it weakens both your father and the Triad and they end up going to war for survival, then the Hood picks off who's left afterwards. You need me to get what you want, so for once, think before you act, let me show you how to handle your business."

* * *

_ Yvgeny Feodorov was a smaller man than his previous tormentor, someone this made Oliver feel more at ease around him, although him being Bratva meant that he was probably a cold hearted killer. Yvgeny circled Oliver surveying his body as if he were staring at a corpse, "You not dead, good." Yvgeny joked, Yvgeny snapped his fingers and a group of larger men picked up Oliver underneath the armpits and carried him into a black SUV._

* * *

Both of them get quickly dressed, Oliver at this point still doesn't trust Helena enough to ride behind him on his bike so instead he commands her to follow him and fifteen minutes later they arrive at Big Belly Burger. They both ordered some food and coffee and mostly silently, eventually Carly came over to speak with them.

"Where's my brother in law?" Carly almost interrogates, "It's late and this is the Glades, shouldn't he be keeping you safe?"

Oliver smiles, "She is tougher than she looks." Carly gives one last death stare before heading back to the kitchen. Oliver smiles at Helena, "I haven't been on a second date in a while, and it feels really nice." He jokes.

"Look we slept together," Helena begins, "And believe me it was nice, and I needed it but I'm not looking for anything."

"Right," Oliver shakes his head, "Because you have everything figured out."

"I don't think you're one to judge, I saw you kill people remember?"

"I only kill people," Oliver pauses, "When it is either makes a sound business sense or if it is absolutely necessary, I don't make a list and then target them, and the way that you're going and your current skill set is going to get someone hurt, like my mother."

"I'm sorry about your mother, that was an accident." Helena responds.

"How many more accidents have to happen before you're done getting back at your father?" Oliver snarls.

"Hopefully none," Helena responds, "But I am not getting back at him, I'm stripping down everything that has meaning to him, just like he did to me when he had Michael killed."

Oliver shakes his head, "People can be replaced," Oliver answers, "The Bertinellis although weakened have plenty of people waiting in the wings to replace his assistant. All you've been doing is taking out pawns, to weaken your father you have to take away his resources, his businesses, legitimate and illegitimate."

"And what? Give them over to you? So you can do the same thing?"

Oliver shakes his head, "This city is dying, slowly, because people like your father are strangling it in order to preserve their pieces, you eliminate the pieces the city will flourish, the Bratva is just a means to an end. Let me show you and you will understand."

Helena smiles, "Thank you for the meal and the sex, but I'm not interested." The smile leaves her face and her body then leaves Oliver and heads back to her bike.

* * *

"Why are you heading in so early?" Moira asks Walter.

"The problem with taking a few weeks off of work is that there is a few weeks' worth of working waiting for you on your desk when you get back." Walter jokes.

"Of course," Moira agrees, "It's just that we haven't spoken since you left, really spoken."

Walter sighs, "I know."

"Look I know that finding out that I used company funds to fund an illegitimate enterprise and then fake an auction to make a profit and to hand the company to our fiercest competitor publically and not so publically is a lot to handle."

Walter turns around, "Yes it was."

Moira sighs, "I just want you to know that I did not hire that sniper, and I just don't want you to feel like you can't trust me anymore. I wasn't lying to hurt you, but to keep you safe. I haven't changed Walter, I'm still the woman you feel in love with and married. Do you see that?"

"Yeah, of course I do," Walter responds a little too nonchalantly for Moira's liking so her kisses her on the cheek, "I know I said in the beginning that I never wanted to know your business, but from now on I want us to be honest about everything moving forward."

"Of course," Moira smiles and they about to share a more romantic embrace before Thea interrupts.

"Walter can you give me a ride to school? Sometimes I like to mix it up and be on time."

"It would be my parental privilege," Walter shuts his suitcase and the two joke as they walk out the door, Moira watches the two with her worries not at all escaping her.

* * *

Quentin Lance looks down upon the slumped naked body of Warren Patel. The man that the Green Hood pointed out as the one that paid the assassin to take out bidders for UNIDAC Industries. Now he sees him with the same black arrows pointing out of him, once again, the green starts it and the black finishes.

"Segeant Lance?" The Starling City Police Commissioner points into the direction of the corner of Warren Patel's master bedroom. Lance follows orders.

"Alright I want this investigation to change, no more green, no more black, one man, with different types of arrows is not out of the possibility here. Adam Hunt makes this story a page ten at best, Warren Patel now makes this a serial murder case."

"So you want me to ignore a serial killer?"

"Just catch one of these nut jobs, that is an order from your commanding officer."

As the commissioner walks away Lance snarls, "Well you can forget it."

The commissioner slowly turns around, "Fine it's forgotten, and you're taken off this case effective immediately."

Lance eventually makes it back to his desk, the anger still searing in him, his brain starts to take him places that he surely doesn't want him to go until finally he gives in, he pulls out the phone that was sent to him a few days ago and activates that encrypted number.

Oliver picks up his phone, "Don't bother tracing this back to me you'll never get through the encryption."

Lance exhales, "There's a heating vent, on the corner of O'Neal and Adams, you'll find what you're after there."

"It would be a mistake to set a trap for me Detective."

"I'm trading everything I believe in right now because we need to catch these guys, you better keep your half of the bargain, because Bertinelli's assistant and a group of his men show up dead at the docks last night, the assistant died with his own gun while the groupies died using Triad ammunition. If men like these keep showing up dead this city is facing an all out war. So I held up my part of the deal and if you don't I'm pinning all this shit on you and we'll see how tough you are with the four major crime organizations as well as the police all hunting your ass all at the same time."

* * *

Helena Bertinelli walks down the stairs of her home to see her father comforting the wife of his former assistant. As Frank Bertinelli makes his promises to her and leads her out the door he turns to Helena, "I'm going to find the son of a bitch who did this, and on my life I'm going to make him pay." The doorbell rings and he smiles, "You know that girl is always forgetting something." He turns around, opens the door and instead he sees Oliver Queen.

"Frank so sorry to drop by unannounced," Oliver shakes his hand.

"You know come on in, look I'm sorry were working on that construction deal and I dropped the ball on that, but things have gotten out of control lately, we've had a death in the family."

"I'm sorry to hear that but I'm not here to discuss business." Oliver points his head towards Helena and Frank turns around, "Oh well, this is one merger that I promise that I won't get in the way of, I'll get out of the way, a father knows when he is not needed."

Helena clearly aggravated by Oliver's appearance makes her way down the stairs, "Was I clear that I am not interested in talking?"

Oliver swallows to control himself, "You don't have to talk." Oliver opens the door and somehow Helena is compelled to grab her leather jacket and follow him into his Bentley. They drive to the graveyard and approach the tombstone of Sara Lance.

"Who is she?" Helena asks.

"Someone I knew a long time ago, at the time I was engaged to her sister, and back then I did not handle the whole commitment idea well, but her sister was perfect wife material and so I couldn't pass it up, I started sleeping with Sara, and others during my engagement, when I disappeared in Russia the news spread about all my activities, I got wind of the press hounding Sara for sleeping with her sister's fiancé, and apparently it lead to her committing suicide. Worse yet the it split the family apart, my ex-fiancée and her father wanted nothing to do with her, her mother did and it lead to the family splitting apart. I did that, I did all that, before Russia I was a terrible person, I was so selfish, thoughtless, and awful, and it effected it really effected people, people I love."

Helena caresses Oliver's hand, "Oliver I want to let you in, but Michael was the last man I opened up to, I can't be hurt again."

Oliver shakes his head, "I will never hurt you I promise."

John Diggle walks into the Foundry to see none other than Helena Bertinelli sitting on a table while Oliver shoots various things that she throws up into the air.

"I can do this all day," Oliver jokes.

"Well I love a man with stamina," Helan purrs.

Diggle clears his throat and the two turn at him, "Helena meet John Diggle his is my воин (warrior)."

"What does that mean?" Helena asks.

"I match rather you didn't know, no offense Ms. Bertinelli."

Helena sense the tension in the room, "Well I'll leave you two to whatever, you do."

As Helena walks by Diggle almost wants to growl at Oliver, "She knows my name and that I'm Bratva, that's good to know."

"You can trust her," Oliver responds.

"Except I don't, are you sleeping with this girl Oliver?"

"I don't think that is any of your business Diggle," Oliver chastises.

"It became my business when you brought me over, you're lonely Oliver, right now you're like a dope addict that thinks they can help another one get straight, what you do, what we do, is dangerous Oliver, and doing what you are doing now is a good way to get yourself killed."

Oliver's nostrils flare, "Are you done?"

"Yeah I'm done with this, but you tell me if I should be done with more. I'm just glad to know that I picked up the arrow for you so that you wouldn't expose yourself to the police, I basically put my life on the line for this arrow, and you're in here giggling with Helena Bertinelli."

"That's…" Oliver rubs his index and middle finger together to calm himself, "Fine, I assume since you're here that you have it?"

Diggle pulls out the black arrow that he had stored inside his coat and hands it to Oliver, Oliver takes it and begins inspecting it underneath a microscope, "Teflon coated titanium blade, serrated to split the bone, shaft is some type of specialized polymer which is stronger than your typical carbon fiber this.." Oliver shakes the arrow to give it emphasis, "This is a custom job."

"So Lance gave in after the archer dropped another body," Diggle concludes.

"Warren Patel," Oliver answers, "The man responsible for bringing in Floyd Lawton."

"So since Lance filled his end of the bargain, when are you going to fill yours?"

Oliver looks up at Diggle, "Depends, if she can help us, we can lead him somewhere else, if she doesn't than серебряное блюдо (silver platter). For now I need to find him, and in the meantime I want you to work with her."

"Вы шутите право? (You're joking right?)" Diggle scoffs.

"В настоящее время она является вашим союзником (As of now she is your associate)."

* * *

Felicity Smoak activates her tablet using a security interface that can only be opened using a series of swipes on the touchscreen. Ever since her research she discovered for Oliver Queen revealed that Moira Queen siphoned company funds to start UNIDAC Industries her knowing that secret began to make her a little more paranoid than usual. Since she really had no life outside the office she began to write code trying to figure out what exactly UNIDAC Industries did behind the scenes if someone like Malcolm Merlyn as willing to pay one hundred and fifty million for it. She spent a few minutes monitoring her algorithms that were running using her servers at home.

"Hey," a voice interrupted her which caused her to jolt.

"Don't you knock!" Felicity resonded guarding her tablet with her life.

Oliver smiled, "Felicity this is the I.T. Department not the ladies room."

Felicity giggled slightly and signed out of her software that is monitoring her algorithms, "Right so what can I do for you?"

"My buddy Steve is really into archery apparently it's all the rage these days."

"Yeah, I don't know why, looks really ridiculous to me."

Oliver couldn't help but chuckle himself, there is something about Felicity that always seems to put a smile on his face, "Anyway, it's Steve's birthday next weekend, and I wanted to buy him some arrows."

"Don't tell me that's all you're going to buy him, Mr. Billionaire."

"Yeah, well you see he gets these special custom made arrows and they're actually really expensive but I have no idea where he gets them, I was hoping you could find out where he gets them."

Felicity goes to grab the shaft of the arrow but Oliver pulls back, "Careful."

"Yeah," Felicity responds annoyingly as she snatches the arrow out of Oliver's hand, she analyzes the shaft until she finds what she's looking for near the nocking point of the arrow, "The shaft's composite is patented, she activates a more basic search algorithm on her laptop next to her and types in the patent numbers and sets the weights for the type of results that she wants in return, almost immediately a order form pops up on her screen. She smiles, "And that patent is registered for a company called Sagittarius, that's Latin for _the archer._"

"Really, could you find out where and when this was purchased?" Oliver asked nonchalantly as he places that arrow back into the packaging.

Felicity smiles knowing that she shouldn't ask why that would matter unless he wasn't actually ordering for a friend however she obliges to his request, "According to Sagittarius records that particular arrow was part of a bundle shipment, two-hundred units sent to wharf number 10245."

Oliver smiles as he snatches the sheet of paper with the address on it, "Felicity, you are remarkable."

Felicity smiles, "Thank you for remarking on it."

* * *

Helena walk back into the Foundry, "Where's Oliver?"

"He has other business matters to take care of so it's just the two of us for now, and as much as I hate that you are here, and as much as I hate to admit it, Oliver Queen is a капитан (Captain) and I must do what he says, and the first thing he asked me to do before you left is train you so that you don't hurt anyone besides the people that we want to hurt."

"So are you going to teach me how to shoot an arrow or something?"

Diggle laughs, "What I'm guessing you didn't take from Oliver's showcase of arrowing things to the ceiling is that shooting an arrow takes discipline, patience, and a clear mind, none of those things which you have. I am however going to teach you how to shoot, properly, which means using your sights and not wasting ammunition, and oh yes, holding something that you intend on killing someone with with two hands. And if you pass, I'll let you come with me tonight."

"Where would we be going?"

"Anthony Venza's illegal prescription drug operation, it's starting to move into our territory, and that market is skyrocketing right now."

"Anthony Venza works for my father." Helena smiles.

"Exactly, so you do what I say, you train hard for the next eight hours, and you can go with and take out another wing of your father's operations and place them into Oliver's hands, or I can drive you home, or better yet turn you into the police for killing Paul Capone."

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Helena remarks.

"Oh, so you could rat us out, and essentially reveal yourself as the one taking down your father's operations and also getting the Russian Bratva in hot water, you do know what happens to snitches right? And the Russians are really good at finding people in protective custody, hence while Cosa Nostra kept hiring me back."

* * *

Oliver hoods up and makes his way down to the wharfs which lay just outside his territory of the docks, Oliver intends on expanding into the wharfs once his drug operation expands and his nightclub becomes profitable, the wharfs have tremendous potential for smuggling operations, something that the man in the black hood seems to understand as well, as Oliver researched a little later the two hundred units of arrows were also shipped with other materials much of it seemed like material to fabricate crystal meth and other synthetic drugs. This further motivates Oliver to take down the dark archer, he's not only infringing on his operations as The Hood, but he's also messing with his business operations as well. Oliver eventually finds wharf 10245, he finds it unusual that the locations is unlocked since it's being used as a smuggling port as well. He enters in the room and notices a strange device, and then immediately hears the door slam behind him, as he then hears the device activate, and he realizes that the materials were not brought in the make drugs, but to create a bomb. He has mere seconds to live, he races to the now locked door fires, and explosive arrow into it, just at the fire bomb goes off the door blows off his hinges and Oliver dives out of the building barely missing that extreme heat of the flames.

* * *

"This isn't crack, anyone can sell crack, all you need is a street corner and a hoodie, this is pharmaceutical grade oxycodone, this is caviar, this is champagne and you sell this at fancy houses at parties with rich kids who have money to burn." Anthony Venza laughs.

Suddenly the lights go out, "Check it out!" Venza commands, almost immediately the sounds of bone breaking and a body slumping to the floor can he heard outside, Venza pulls out his gun, "Do you really think that you can get out of here in one piece?"

"I was thinking the same thing," a modulated voice rang out in the darkness, in a matter of moments swift movements and grunts of pain are heard an in a mere minute everyone is taken down except for Anthony Venza. The large man approaches Venza, "Anthony Venza," the modulated voice rings out, "You have failed this city."

* * *

_Oliver was driven to a cabin someone in a resolute area, upon arrival he was laid in the bed as Yvgenny told him to sleep, Oliver didn't really want to, afraid that he would be abandoned, but the bed was more comfortable than anything he has slept on in weeks. His body couldn't fight it any longer and he was fast asleep in minutes._

_He awoke later in the darkness, only Yvgenny remained, he was stoking the furnace in the cabin, Yvgenny turned to him and nodded, "Still not dead, this is good." Yvgenny throws a set of flannels at him, "Change, those clothes will do nothing but cause infection."_

_Oliver began to remove his clothes but paused, "Privacy?"_

_Yvgenny laughed, "Then change outside and get frostbite."_

_Oliver rolled his eyes and stripped, and put on the briefs, long underwear, flannel shirt and pants." Yvgenny took the torn and bloody clothes and threw them into the furnace, "Tonight I cook for you, and you eat, tomorrow you hunt, you learn to kill animal it will be easier to kill human."_

"_Kill humans? I don't kill things." Oliver responded._

_Yvgenny grunted, "You learn to kill or you die, your choice."_

* * *

Four men are sharing dinner and playing cards when suddenly all their phones start ringing at once.

"What is it?" The man answers in Chinese.

"Get out of there!" The man on the other line responds.

Suddenly the door bursts open and Helena dressed in her black leathers and black helmet storms into the room placing one shot into each of the men's chests and then finishing them all off with bullets to the head.

Frank Bertinelli answers his phone, "Who's dead, Ying Shi? With our ammo? I did not authorize this! Well, Queen is dead, Shi is dead, the Triad will make one last stand everyone needs to strap up, war is coming."

Oliver sits in his gear pondering how everything went wrong, he nearly got killed as this Dark Archer was one step ahead of him, and Helena Bertinelli just went rogue performing a hit, a precise one at least, of the remaining leaders of the Triad, blood is hitting the streets and he's fully responsible for it.

Diggle approaches him in the Foundry, Oliver holds up a hand, "Before you tell me, you were right, about all of it, I should have listened to you."

Diggle sighs, "Oliver you said you wanted to help her change, the thing is, she already did change, when her father killed her fiancé she changed into something dark and twisted, you see that now don't you."

"It's not that I didn't see it Diggle, it's just that I didn't want to, I'm living a double life, and to do that I'm taking all these people that I love and putting them at arm's length, I'm giving up a lot, maybe I thought the universe owed me one. But I can stop her from going over the edge she's already passed it."

Suddenly his phone rings, Oliver clears his throat, "Detective?"

"I'm going to give you a heads up, the other hood has hostages, four of them to be exact, he has demands, he wants to confront you, if you don't within the hour he'll kill one of them, my captain has chosen to call his bluff and set up a trap to take you down instead, figuring that he can capture you, which would meet the demands of the Hood, and get you and the hostage situation at the same time. The story is going to hit the news soon, I wanted to give you a heads start before it turns into a media shit storm and the press starts looking for you."

"Thank you Detective, and I have news for you, if I were you right about now I would be heading over to Frank Bertinelli's place, the shooter your after will be there shortly." Oliver hangs up the phone, "The copycat demands my presence, I want you with me, he's good. Let Lance deal with Helena."

* * *

Frank Bertinelli unlocks the safe that contains the laptop with all his operations on it, he opens his briefcase and drops the laptop into it, pulls his gun out of it and locks the case. He hides behind a pillar and takes out one of the remaining Triad trying to kill him in retaliation for the death of their leaders. He shoots his way out of his house and runs into the forest when an explosion occurs just behind his knee, he flips over onto his back to see his daughter Helena Bertinelli in her leathers holding a gun pointed at him.

"Helena what is this?" He groans

"Payback for Michael, I know you had him killed, Salvatti told me."

"I did that to protect the family!" Bertinelli snarls.

I had to take everything away from you because you took EVERYTHING away from me. You finally know what it feels like to find out that your own blood is responsible for the death of your entire world."

Then Helena feels the same explosion of pain behind her knee and she collapses to the ground, forces encircle the two and Quentin Lance walks in between them and picks up the briefcase, "And I thought I had problems with my daughter."

* * *

Oliver fires a zip line arrow into the warehouse where the hostages are located, he lands in a spot that just happens to be where the four hostages are tied to chairs, Oliver frees them and leads them to the stairs that goes up to the roof. As he turns down the hallway he sees him, the man in black.

"Thank you for coming," a slightly different modulated voice echoes through the hall, "After the wharf I knew had to do something dramatic to get your attention."

"What do you want with me?"

"What any archer wants, to see who's better." Oliver fires his arrows first but the Dark Archer dodges it and fires a shot of his own, Oliver also is able to move out of the way, the both fire a few more arrows but they are of no use, Oliver climbs into the rafters and the dark archer goes hunting for him, the dark archer has problems finding him until he sees him in a reflection of broken glass, he fire and arrow, knocking Oliver's bow out his hand. Oliver flips down but takes an arrow to the calf, he gets his bow back but and pulls the arrow out of his legs, with his movements slowed his basically a sitting duck and before he knows it two arrows protrude straight into his back. He then is kicked in the back and slammed into some wooden framing. His is kicked through the framing and is about pinned down as the dark archer begins wailing on him.

"First Hunt, then Patel, now you!" The Dark Archer stomps on Oliver's head, "The keeper knows what you are doing, and he wants you dead!" Another foot reins down on Oliver's head, "You call yourself The Hood, let's see what you look like underneath it." The Dark Archer goes to pull the hood off Oliver's head but Oliver is able to stab a throw arrow into the man's knee, Oliver delivers a punch to the temple temporarily knocking the Dark Archer out. Oliver gets up, and crawls out the window making sure to fall belly first onto the dumpster so that he doesn't further bury the arrows into his back. Oliver grabs his comm, "Diggle, help." Are the last words he speaks before passing out in the alley, hoping that Diggle finds him first before the police.

Oliver wakes up in a hospital bed, massive amounts a pain shoot through him.

"Relax Oliver your safe, you're in a hospital."

"How'd I get here?" Oliver groans.

"I got you cleaned you up and got you here, you need to be more careful about riding your motorcycle, you got a bruised thorax, three broken ribs, and a concussion but the doctor says you're going to be fine, you have some people here to see you." Diggle moves closer to Oliver's ear, "Helena and Frank Bertinelli are in custody, we can talk later."

"Oliver what were you doing out so late, I mean did you even know that Black Hood was taking hostages?" Moira worries.

"Thank god you were wearing your helmet, no telling what would have happened," Walter adds.

"Sorry, I've been saying that a lot lately, but I was having some issues and went to blow off some steam, next time I'll just get drunk, I'll even take Thea along."

Thea smiles, "No, we need to stop blowing off steam, when you get home were going to work on dealing with our issues without…harming ourselves or others feelings."

Oliver smiles, "That sounds good, ah, ah."

"Take it easy get some rest, Mr. Diggle or one of us will be right here, were heading home it's late we'll bring breakfast from Raisa in the morning."

The three leave leaving Oliver alone with Diggle once more, "I don't know what hurts more, this or getting hit with a curare laced bullet."

"Been there done that with both, both suck."

"Diggle 'preciate the humor but it hurts way to fucking much to laugh right now."

Diggle sighs, "Well you did what you said you would do, you found the source of the Bertinelli killings and exploited it."

Oliver tilts his head back into his pillow, "Yeah, with the Triad and the Bertinelli's all but wiped out I need you to take over for a while, that includes the other activities as well, find some converts from both sides as well, show them how much money we can roll in by working together, you'll find some."

"I know all of that Oliver, I've got one better I got some guys back in Russia who are coming here to get things settled in, by the time you get better we will be the third most powerful organization in Starling, and no one will even know it."

"And it also looks like I'm getting back into Oliver Queen, motorcycle accidents, fucking napalming a romantic relationship, and getting back in the groove."

"Diggle smiled, "You opened your heart up to somebody and it didn't quite work out, the Oliver I have known for three years would have never done that, look I'm no expert on this but I don't think love is about changing or saving a person, I think it's about finding someone who's already the right fit. When you meet the right person you will be ready for her."

"Oliver Queen getting love advice?" A familiar voice rings out, "Jeez the world is ending."

Oliver smiles, "Tommy how are ya?"

"Hell of a lot better than you, look I've been avoiding you for a couple of days, first it was out of sheer fear of you actually snapping my neck but now that you're in a hospital bed I feel much safer."

"Hey I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"No, no, I understand man totally, Laurel is special, and uh the other reason is more out of, well, my dad cut me off, he froze all my funds, I am living on fumes."

"Really? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Embarrassment, shame, jealousy, probably a few other emotions I'm not used to feeling."

"Tommy my trust fund is your trust fund."

Tommy sighs, "No, that is the easy answer and believe me I loved easy answers, what I need is a job. I'm trying to change, into what I don't know, I don't want to be what I was anymore."

Oliver smiles, "It just happens to be that I have a general manager position that is available, you're probably the guy for the job." Oliver finishes sarcastically.

"Will I be getting dental? This smile wasn't cheap." Tommy jokes.

"I'll look into that." Oliver jokes back.

"Look I want to hug you right now but broken ribs so I take a raincheck, so thank you."

"You're welcome," Oliver answers.

"You okay, the love advice is probably based off your ex being a psycho killer?"

Oliver nods, "Yeah, that might be an issue."

"Well I'll head down to the site tomorrow and check out the progress." Tommy smiles, "Better get to bed then, don't want to look bad on my first day."

Diggle takes off his coat, "Well four hostages are at home tonight because of their families, Starling City now knows that the green archer is beneficial to the city, as for the Dark Archer, he'll get what's coming for him, and you'll give it to him."

Oliver groans, "He said there was a keeper."

"Who said that?" Diggle says.

"The other archer, says that there was a keeper, I always assumed that The Code was shared between the heads of families as a rite of passage passed down from generation to generation. But if there is a keeper, than the families have a hierarchy, which means if we're going to take the city we have to find this keeper, and we have to stop him."

* * *

The Dark Archer finishes his last stitch on his knee and then slowly limps over to a display case, inside the display case is an old cell phone and a wooden king chess piece. Then the archer here's footsteps in the hallway behind him he turns around to find Malcom Merlyn smiling, he passes by the archer and massages the display case, "Soon, very, very soon."

* * *

**Malcom Merlyn isn't the Dark Archer? Or are there two Dark Archers? If Malcom Merlyn isn't than who is?**


	6. Challengers

**Hello everyone! Just want to say a huge thanks to everyone that has, read, followed, favorite, and/or commented on this piece. Doing these takes a lot of time and usually a sleepless night or two but it makes it all worthwhile to know that you guys are enjoying the story. **

**This is another monster chapter, it covers episodes 10, 11, 12, and 13 of Season 1. Let me know but I kind of like the two baddies at once thing because it allows Diggle and Oliver to work independently and the two of them use different methods to get the job done, Diggle is a little more confrontational and dare I say more ruthless than Oliver, while Oliver likes to stay in the shadows and likes to keep things a little cleaner. Hence why one is a warrior and one is a Captain.**

**As this season moves on the repercussions of previous chapters are going to start affecting the AU more, so expect to see some separation from the cannon world.**

**As always I don't own, I just borrow and enjoy**

* * *

**Challengers**

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen, for five years I was trapped in Russia, during my time there I had one goal: survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do this, I must become someone else. I must become more powerful, and in the past few weeks I, with my partner John Diggle and with partial help from Helena Bertinelli, we have destroyed the power structures of the Triad and Bertinelli families. This has allowed my operations coming out of the Glades to hold a vast majority in Starling City's drug smuggling trade. I've also begun to venture into legitimate businesses, the nightclub I have partnered with Tommy Merlyn will be opening soon, John Diggle has become the sole owner of Big Belly Burger and is planning on expanding out of the Glades, and most importantly I was able to use my position within Queen Consolidated to acquire Bertinelli Construction. With the organization becoming stronger we are beginning to recruit members of my old Bratva team to Starling City. Even with how successful my operations have been, the Dark Archer and his keeper still remain out there, and there are others who feel that they can take what I have, what they don't know is that they are dealing with someone else, with something else.

* * *

Oliver holds up a Blu Ray toward Thea who stuffs a French fry into her mouth, "I've seen that one before," she mentions.

"Cut me some slack, I've been gone for a while and apparently I've missed the cinematic genius of Zach Galafanakis?"

"Shouldn't we be watching more a family centered movie?" Moira spits out, "I don't think four guys getting high in Vegas a day before one of them gets married is the best family material."

"Why? I technically did that, so I think it's perfect family material." Oliver responds.

The door opens and shuts and Walter Steele arrives in the room, "How nice it is to come home to my entire family in the living room about to enjoy a movie together."

"Hurry up, you're chicken sandwich is getting cold," Thea commands.

Walter sheds his coat and places it neatly over a chair and then sits Indian style on the floor, "I've been waiting for this all day."

"The chicken?" Oliver questions.

"No, the time with family, I guess the only good thing to come out of your motorcycle accident is that we've been spending more time together.

The four begin to eat as a news program begins a nightly debate, Oliver begins to catch interest in it since the title is "Where is the Starling City Vigilante?"

"What strikes me is that this vigilante was actually making a difference, in the four months that he was active, assaults were down, muggings down, the murder rate dropped by sixteen percent, so in a very quantifiable way this 'man in the hood' had been a positive force in this city, so, where has he been for the past six weeks?"

"Hopefully dead," Moira responds, "Liberals, they think it's better to not let the police handle justice, just let anyone dish it out, don't they know that this is how riots start? Communists."

"Moira," Walter interrupts, "Can we not wish death upon people during family dinner time?"

* * *

"Laurel my hands are tied parole is parole," Quentin responds annoyingly.

"You do realize that you are talking about a former kingpin that you put away?" Laurel reminds him.

"Yes, I realize that, but these guys have armies of lawyers and pockets deep enough to impress any DA, so they get off, then it's my job to catch them again, it's how I keep a job." Quentin jokes.

A technician steps in, "Sorry to take so long detective, the only fingerprints on it are yours, the tech inside it is military grade, I can't even trace the manufacturer, forensics wise it's a dead end."

Quentin drops the phone on his desk and sighs, Laurel looks at the phone questioningly, "Another case?"

Quentin sighs, "Vigilante, the phone belongs to him."

"Where did you get it? Does he answer it?"

"Well like Kelton said, it's a dead end, listen kiddo I know those you represent are not happy that he's free but my hands are tied until he gets caught up in it again, and believe me he will. I gotta go I love you." Quentin takes a last sip of coffee and leaves Laurel behind, Laurel stares at the phone, and eventually temptation overcomes her.

* * *

Inside a darkened room a man is tied to a chair, only one light is illuminated showcasing some lab equipment. Suddenly the door opens and three men enter. One of the men dressed in a jet black trench coat approaches him and points a gun at his temple.

"I'm sorry it had to be you, but whomever you are working for is barging in on my territory, so examples must be made." The man walks behind him and jams a two point syringe into his neck, the man in the chair grunts in pain and curses him in Russian.

"Russian huh? Why didn't Leonov tell me about this?" The Russian man starts to mumble gibberish and the dark cloaked man laughs, "Vertigo, in its purest form, when injected purely into the bloodstream it affects the nervous system and activates all the pain receptors in your body. No doubt you're in excruciating pain, but actually you're not, you just think you are! The feeling last for days until finally the heart gives out, now I have one bullet left, either you can tell me who you work for where at that point I will shoot you in the head and end your agony, or you can suffer for three days and eventually die anyway. Hm?"

The Russian man clenches his fist, snorts in a set of mucus and spits in the man's face. The cloaked man laughs, "Loyal this one is, fine then, enjoy yourself." As the three men leave they hear the sound of the man screaming in agony.

* * *

Cyrus Vanche walks into the house of the lawyer who clearly has no intention of seeing him, "Hi George," Cyrus greets him. "Surprised to see me? I imagine you would after you botched most of my operations as Olivia has told me."

George stammers, "There were contingencies that couldn't be anticipated."

"Yes, that is also what Olivia told me, the head of the Triad getting ventilated, Bertinelli getting collared, and these archers."

"Exactly, and the Green one has been pinning us in a corner, what exactly am I supposed to do in this situation?"

"Absolutely nothing Georgie, tell you what, all is forgiven, give us a hug." Cyrus opens his arms; George clearly looks at Cyrus suspiciously.

"Come on," Cyrus calmly chides, finally George realizes he doesn't have much of a choice and embraces his boss, Cyrus wraps his arms around George, "You know I could use a place to say while I'm getting my sea legs back under me George, and you got a nice place here, what do ya say?" George says nothing until he finally chokes in pain, Cyrus twists the small daggers that he has stabbed into George's stomach until finally George keels over and dies. Cyrus plops George to the ground and sighs, "I hope George has been food shopping I'm famished."

* * *

Oliver notices that his phone is ringing, _thee phone_, he cautiously picks it up, "Detective?"

"Hello?" Laurel's voice comes out on the other line.

Oliver's head shoots up, "Ms. Lance."

"Yes, how did you know who I was?"

"Let's just say I'm interested on the same targets that you are interested in."

"Well I know you have been missing lately but Cyrus Vanche was released today, he is connected to human trafficking, drug running, racketeering, and at least fifty-two different homicides. Right now unless you decide to get back into action, he's going to be living large in his lawyers house while a multitude of families lose out on the justice that they deserve."

Oliver sighs, "What about the police?"

"They can't move on him without evidence of criminal activity."

"Ms. Lance, obtaining evidence isn't what I do, if you want me to get rid of Vanche than there will be no trial, are you prepared for that Ms. Lance?"

Laurel pauses.

"Hold onto the phone, I will call later," Oliver finalizes the call and hangs up the phone, "Cyrus Vanche has made parole, and he's intending to take back the Glades, looks like I have work to do."

* * *

_Each day Oliver believed that he had never been so cold in his life, but truly today was truly the day he had never been so cold in his life. Even the fresh underwear, clothes, and parka didn't help. He couldn't feel his feet in his boots, he couldn't feel his hands where were heavily gloved, he wanted to return to the cabin, but Yvgeny would not allow him back inside until he killed something. On top of that all Oliver had to kill this animal was a hunting knife and some snares, which he had no clue how to use. Suddenly he heard the scariest sound he had ever heard in his life, growling. He realized at that point that he no longer was the hunter but the hunted. Oliver scrambled away from his location until he could find a tree that was accessible enough to climb. Soon he saw it, a massive grey beast, sniffing his trail, he knew immediately that it wouldn't take much time for the beast to approach the tree that he was hiding in. Suddenly the wolf unleashed a massive howl, and then the new most terrifying thing Oliver has seen come into his vision, four more wolves approached the tree, Oliver was a religious man but he kept praying in his mind that the wolves couldn't climb trees._

* * *

Moira Queen holds a white dress with purple jewels in her hands, "Thea, I think you've tried on every dress in the city."

Thea giggles, "Totally worth it, when my friends see it there going to freak!"

Moira laughs, "Well if your father were alive he would freak too but in a totally different way."

Thea smiles, "You remember when dad freaked out at my date in my first girl boy dance?"

"Oh yes, he nearly scared that boy to death."

"I remember dad telling me that the saddest day of his life is the day that I turn eighteen, now he's gone and I'm the one that's sad."

Moira moves the shopping back over and attempts to pull her daughter toward her but before she can her phone goes off, "Sorry I need to take this."

Thea smiles at the disruption until she sees the contact on the phone, _Malcom Merlyn._

"Hello," Moira answers, "Yes, I understand but I'm with my daughter, alright I'll be there." Moira hangs up the phone and sighs.

"I thought you said that we were going to spend the whole day together?" Thea snarls.

"I know but, my lawyers called, and I some legal issues have arisen over our acquirement of Bertinelli Construction and they say it can't wait."

Thea looks out the window, she cannot believe that her mother just blatantly lied to her right in front of her face.

John Diggle walks into the mechanic shop of Alexi Leonov, apparently Leonov says it's urgent, and when Leonov says something is urgent it's pretty urgent.

"приятно вас видеть (Good to see you)," Diggle greets.

"Good to see you too," Leonov returns the favor, "I'm glad to see that your organization has done so well with pharmaceuticals, but I'm afraid there is a new thing, and this person that has the new thing took one of my workers last night."

"What's the new thing?" Diggle asks.

"Vertigo, the man that sells it is very difficult to work with, I have been maintaining contact with him in order to keep him in check, but it seems that he wants to expand, and Bratva is blocking his expansion."

Diggle shrugs, "I don't see the issue, we handle it like we normally do."

Leonov shakes his head, "This man has massive operation and attempting a hit on him will be very costly, I suggest a relationship, I have arranged a meeting and I would like you and Captain Queen to attend."

"Captain Queen is dealing with another issue within our organization," Diggle responded.

"Yes, Cyrus Vanche, who will also be searching for the newest thing to restart his businesses, we have relationship with seller we contain seller, our relationship goes bad, he will surely go to the competition."

* * *

Moira Queen sits on Malcom Merlyn's desk looking out the panoramic window that overlooks Starling City, "I'm sorry to have to pull you away from your family like that," Malcom begins.

"What do you want Malcom," Moira groans.

"We have a problem, two problems that is, one Cyrus Vanche is looking to get his piece back."

"Cyrus is a loose cannon, I wouldn't much worry about him." Moira concludes.

"I believe the same thing, but he has competition, Bratva, I been receiving numerous reports of an infestation of Russian Bratva into the Glades. Now I don't want you to take offense but your son returns from five years after being sold to the Bratva. He's opening a nightclub in the Glades that my son is currently managing, your son convinced you to purchase Bertinelli Construction which he is using to build burger joints which originally stationed in the Glades, and he has said in a news report of the clubs opening date that he hopes that it will gentrify the Glades."

Moira turns to Malcom, "You think Oliver planned all this? The same Oliver Queen that can barely walk out the door without someone telling him what to do, you think he can plan a massive Bratva operation?"

"There's only one way you can survive five years in Russia with Queen as your last name Moira, and from a mother who had her son kidnapped and tortured on his second day out of the hospital, I don't think it would do much harm just to get some information." Malcom rubs Moira's shoulder and walks away as Thea looks on in this distance.

* * *

Oliver sits at his desk in his room and inserts a special military grade encryption key, he presses the six digits on the key which activates a log in software, he sets his watch for one minute and types in a username and passcode, which takes Oliver to a ledger screen. Suddenly his door opens and Thea barges in, Oliver logs out quickly and deactivates the key before placing it back in his pocket, "Knocking is more than a suggestion," Oliver warns Thea.

"I'm really sorry but I have to talk to you." Thea storms into his room.

"Thea I'm not telling you if mom is getting you a car."

"It's not about that," Thea says, Oliver can tell that Thea has been crying and he straightens up, "I think mom is hooking up with Tommy's dad."

Oliver scoffs, "That's insane."

"I just saw them together!" Thea adds, "It's happening again."

"What are you talking about?"

Thea sits down in a chair next to Oliver's desk, "Um, a couple of months before you and dad left for Moscow, mom and dad were arguing a lot."

"About what?"

"I don't know, but she was having a lot of these lunch meetings with Mr. Merlyn, and now mom and Mr. Merlyn are back at it and it's gross."

Oliver sighs, "Mom never would have cheated on dad. She's not cheating on Walter."

Thea sighs, "You don't want to believe it because you have this perfect image of mom in your head, that's not who she is, Ollie, she's a liar, and a cheater, and you really don't know her at all."

* * *

_Oliver sighed in relief when he realized that the wolves couldn't climb the tree, but he realized being this high up in the tree doesn't block the fierce wind blowing, he could barely feel anything in his body, and then he realized what the wolves were doing, they were waiting him out. Either he would die from the cold and all out of the tree for them to scavenge, or he would make a break for it and they would hunt him down. In the last month he has faced death on so many occasions, but being eaten by wolves was his knew death he had to look forward to. However the wolves noses started to rise in the air, and soon enough the four of them left the tree. Oliver wasted no time, he jumped out of the tree and made a break for the cabin, he didn't make it that far before he saw Yvgeny, pointing a bow and arrow at his face, "You fail, I let you live. Now follow me."_

* * *

Oliver and Moira ride in the Bentley on their normal morning commute to work. "So I've been thinking," Moira begins, "I know that you have had numerous plans for this nightclub, but with your help in purchasing Bertinelli Construction, which will now allow us to build the Applied Sciences building with minimal overhead and will put the budget for the building back on track, I think it's a little unnecessary to still be worrying about this nightclub."

Oliver turns to his mother, "There's too many pieces in place at this point mom, I'm not halting the nightclub."

"I didn't say anything about halting it, perhaps you could sell it to Tommy."

"Tommy doesn't have the income to buy it from me anymore his father cut him off, he's living paycheck to paycheck, just like the rest of the people working on it." Oliver sighs, "Why are you bringing this up mom?"

"I just figured with how well you've adjusted into business life that you really don't need anything to remind you of your past."

Oliver smiles, "My past will always be there mom, and the money that this club will bring in will help pay off the acquisition of Bertinelli Construction thus bringing the budget for the construction project down further."

"Then perhaps after the club shows a profit you should sell it, you know how clubs like this work, one day you're the hottest place to go, the next day you're empty and closing your doors."

"I'm not closing the club mom, end of story."

Moira sighs, "Fine, I'm just worried about you that's all."

Oliver smiles again, "No need to worry mom, I got this taken care of."

Moira smiles and then looks out the window worryingly, until they reach Queen Consolidated. Diggle escorts Moira out of the car first and then he goes to Oliver's door, "What was that all about?" Diggle asks.

Oliver shakes his head, "Don't know."

"Well I got a call from Leonov, meeting with the Vertigo distributor goes down tonight, both Leonov and the distributor want to talk to the captain."

"Fair enough," Oliver states, "We need to get to this guy before Vanche does."

* * *

_Yvgeny and Oliver hid out in a tree and observed the pack of wolves eating the elk that Yvgenny had recently killed and splayed its blood to attract the wolves. With the Wolves distracted, Yvgenny raised his bow and delivered a set of poison laced arrows into the now six wolves that encircled the dead elk. Minutes later the wolves lay dead in the snow. _

"_Follow me," Yvgeny called out the Oliver, Yvgeny pulled apart some branches from the tree they were in and handed them to Oliver, "Don't let them touch the snow or we both die." Yvgeny jumped out of the tree and pulled his knife out of his boot. The approached one of the dead wolves, he turned the wolf onto his back and then stabbed the wolf right underneath the neck and then pulled the knife all the way through the wolf's abdomen. He then used the knife to pull the wolf's pelt away from the carcass. He turned around and looked at Oliver who had already puked once into the snow but did not let the wood touch the snow._

_ Yvgeny pulled some flint and a lighter out of his pocket, "Build fire with wood, you fend off other wolves."_

_ "What?"_

_ "Wolves don't like fire, I take pelts you keep fire burning."_

_ "Why are we collecting furs, I thought Bratva did other things beside hunt and collect furs."_

_ "Killing wolf or elk is much harder than human, you learn to kill those first, you learn to take what's valuable from them first, then we will teach you to do it on humans."_

* * *

"Do you know why they call him _The Count_?" Leonov proses, "When he was developing this drug he experimented on the homeless, prostitutes, runaways, the police would find their bodies with puncture marks on their neck like a vampire."

A black Lincoln Navigator parks next to the group and two men step out followed by The Count. One of the men approach Oliver and pat him down for weapons, they find a revolver, the man points a gun at him, Oliver snarls, "Я капитан , я всегда ношу с собой оружие. "

"I have no idea what you just said," The Count begins, "But I take from my men that they are not pleased with something in your coat?"

"I told your man that I am a Bratva Captain, Captains always carry weapons."

The Count nods, "Fair enough, I heard you are interested in the feel good business?"

"Yes," Oliver answers.

"And why is that?"

"Well I am opening a nightclub and I would like my customers to have a little, something extra."

"Well as it happens, I'm looking to expand my brand." The Count jokes, he turns to the other man who is carrying a metal briefcase, "A good wine's value is measured by its vintage, the number of years it took to ferment, Vertigo is measured in lives." The Count opens the briefcase and pulls out a small bag containing four pills, "Fifty-six people died to perfect this high, and when I said that, I say that they did not die…for nothing." The Count places the briefcase in the hands of Oliver while Diggle drops two large bags of cash at The Count's feet. The sounds of sirens begin to sound and blue and red lights flash everywhere.

Oliver nods to The Count, "The deal is done."

"It's been a pleasure," The Count bows and the two groups quickly scatter to avoid the police presence.

* * *

Oliver takes a deep breath and enters the IT cubicle that he has become a little accustomed to at this moment, "Good Morning Felicity."

Felicity Smoak looks up, "Oh the mystery of the day, what do you have for me this time."

"Well my buddy is starting a supplement company."

"Is this the same buddy that likes archery?" Felicity asks.

Oliver nods, "You can say that, he's a very interesting guy, anyways he says it's fantastic for those that work out a lot, but I am very particular about what I put in my body."

"I've noticed," Felicity coos before stopping herself, "I said not noticed, right."

Oliver releases another laugh and pulls out one of the packets containing the Vertigo pills, "Well I'm trying to find the secret recipe that he uses and I was wondering if you could do a spectro-analysis of the contents of these pills?"

"Uh sure," Felicity pauses, "While you are here, I actually needed to talk to you but I'm a little uncomfortable about doing it here."

Oliver pauses and nods, "Is it urgent?"

Felicity nods, "I say so."

"Well tonight I have some things to do with the nightclub, my General Manager Tommy is choosing a chef tonight. "

"Ooh, bring me back some cheesecake?"

Oliver smiles, "You get me that spectro-analysis by nightfall and it's a deal."

Felicity smiles, "I'm on it."

Oliver walks out and then stops, "Oh I forgot, pick a spot and we can discuss whatever you need to talk about over lunch."

Felicity smiles again, "You got it, it's a date!" Felicity then panics, "Not a _date _date, but set the date you know, business lunch."

Oliver laughs, "I understand."

* * *

Laurel's apartment doorbell rings, "I'll be right there, I can't wait for the tasting tonight I'm even wearing my fat pants…" Laurel opens the door but instead of Tommy on the other side two gangster storm her apartment, one tries to put his hands around her neck, but she gets free of the hold and slams the man up against her front door, which consequently pins the other gangster between her door and the doorframe. Laurel throws an elbow into her first attacker's face and then pushes the second man in the face and then slams the door on his knee. Laurel jumps over the two falling men attempting to make a run for it but in the hallway she sees two more men and Cyrus Vanche waiting for her.

Cyrus walks up to Laurel, "Ooh, I love a woman that can take care of herself." He smiles just before putting a taser to Laurel's neck.

* * *

Oliver and Diggle discuss their plans in the Foundry, while Tommy prepares the tasting above, "Looks like Felicity came through," Diggle looks at the results on the computer, "The solvent from the Vertigo sample was run off water originating within a ten block radius of where East Glades meets the bay. Nothing else is there except for an old juvenile detention center that was abandoned three years ago…cut backs."

Suddenly Oliver's phone rings, he sees the contact and answers, "Who am I speaking to."

"You know damn well who you are speaking to," Lance answers back, "I'm not particularly happy right now, we've been doing this deal together, and I hate myself for it, but now I hate you more. I hate everything you stand for, but there is a lunatic, Vanche, he has my little girl, he's been hunting for you, we've had sources claim that he's making a move, and he's put the guys that you seem to take down for my daughters cases and put those two together to think that you two are working together, he's using my daughter as bait, and he'll kill her if he doesn't get a shot at you."

"He'll kill her anyway, so why call me?"

"Because I work the organized crime unit, and part of the protocol for working in the unit is that you and anyone you know can have all their contact information eliminated, so that situations like this don't happen. Vanche is working this angle because someone at the precinct talked, so it sickens me to say, but you are the only person I trust."

"Fine, but you owe me one Detective." Oliver hangs up the phone, "Cyrus Vanche has kidnapped Laurel, he's threatening to kill her if The Hood doesn't show."

"If Vanche is worried about The Hood than he's not worried about getting Vertigo." Diggle concludes.

Oliver shakes his head, "No, the kidnapping is petty, if he wanted to send a message he would have just killed her, he's trying to pull me out, distract The Hood from what's really going on. " Oliver pauses and then pushes a contact on his phone, "I'm turning in my favor detective."

* * *

Diggle makes it the abandoned detention center and begins climbing the stairs, a man tries to sneak up behind him but Diggle snaps a punch straight into the man's chest knocking all his wind out and sending him back down the stairs. He then delivers a boot to the chest of a guard coming towards him knocking him out as well. Diggle then takes the third guard on the stairs and slams him against the wall.

Oliver enters the compound and delivers three arrows straight into the chest of three guardsmen who never got a chance to fire their automatic weapons. He finds another man and jams a throw arrow into his kidney, before firing a fourth arrow through another man's chest.

Diggle climbs up the second flight of stairs as two men come running for him, Diggle pulls out two silenced pistols and delivers a kill shot to each of their chests. He sees another man coming at him pointing his gun and ready to fire but Diggle pulls the trigger first putting a bullet through his forehead.

Oliver notices two sharpshooters on the roof and fires an explosive arrow between them , the explosion distracts the snipers allowing Oliver to put arrows through them. He approaches the door of the mansion and sees a small army of armed men waiting for him, Oliver fires and arrow through the head of one of the men, he uses a throw arrow to bring another armed man to his knee, he uses that man for cover before firing two more arrows into two other armed men before slamming another throw arrow through the kneeling man's head. As Oliver enters the room he goes for another arrow, but he realizes that he is out of arrows or throw arrows. He soon sees a man in a shotgun waiting to fire at him, so Oliver places his hands up knowing that Cyrus will want to witness his death.

"Lose the bow greenie," Cyrus laughs. Oliver does what he is told and places the bow on the floor. Cyrus smiles, "Ventilate him."

Oliver goes to his knee and pulls the revolver out of his thigh holster, he fires a bullet through the shooters head, dropping him to the floor. Oliver then turns to Vanche who is clearly surprised to see The Hood carrying a concealed weapon.

"I thought the arrows were a dignity thing?" Vanche states.

"Nope," Oliver says before unloading the round into Cyrus' chest, he reloads and turns to the blonde woman standing next to him, "You run or you die, which one?" The blonde nods and runs out of the mansion. Oliver places, the gun back in his holster and looks at Laurel, "Let's go."

Diggle comes flying into the lab where a bevy of men begin firing rounds at him, some of them collide with his Kevlar, but Diggle makes it to the floor before driving a bullet through each of the shooters heads.

"Who the hell are you? Vanche? Triad, Bertinelli, no need to take me down I serve all, I give the people what they want, I am providing a public service!"

"So do we," Diggle answers back before firing his last round into The Count's gun knocking it away, The Count pulls out a double syringe of Vertigo. Diggle charges him and as The Count makes an attempt to jam the syringe in him, Diggle ducks grabs a hold of The Count's wrists and stabs him with the syringe, "Enjoy the fruits of your own labor." Diggle presses the plunger halfway down releasing the contents into The Count's system, "Братва будет с радостью принимаем Вас как их рабом (The Bratva will gladly accept you as their slave.)"

* * *

A squadron of SCPD cars arrive, just as The Hood said, a massive amount of old factions from The Triad and the Bertinelli Family have joined up with what appears to one of Cyrus Vanche's crew. A firefight commences, Lance calls in for backup and eventually a few hours later the standoff ends when many of the gangsters are either killed or are arrested.

Suddenly _the phone rings, _Lance answers it, "I have your daughter and Vanche is dead."

Lance exhales, "Oh thank God."

"How is my half of the deal?" The Hood asks.

"The Docks are secure," Lance answers.

"Very good Detective."

* * *

Oliver unties Laurel, "Are you alright?"

"What would you think if you said I didn't know?"

"That you're being honest," Oliver pauses, "I didn't see how all of this put you in danger."

"I'm a big girl, I knew the risks."

"Now I know them, and I'm not willing to take them with you anymore."

"What does that mean?"

"It means goodbye."

"Laurel?" Laurel turns to see no one other than Tommy Merlyn running at her, "Oh God Laurel, Laurel tell me you are okay please?"

Laurel hugs Tommy, "I'm okay, I'm okay." She turns around to find The Hood, but as usual he's disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

Oliver sits inside a future location of a downtown Big Belly Burger that is halfway through construction, Oliver offered this location and Diggle had the location in The Glades delivered. A small drizzle began to tap against the newly installed windows, he stares out through the windows until he sees Felicity Smoak waiving at him, he unlocks the door and lets her inside.

"Hi," Felicity smiles.

"Hi," Oliver returns the favor.

"Thanks for meeting me, I was a little uncomfortable about meeting you somewhere in public."

Oliver chuckles, "Okay."

Felicity sits down, "The thing is I've been debating whether or not to share this with you for weeks, can I trust you?" Oliver looks up at her confused and Felicity scoffs, "I'm not an idiot, you dropped a ridiculous lie about a bullet ridden laptop the first time we've met, and after that you made me look up a suspicious looking arrow, and you made me do an analysis of some sketchy looking drug on company time. Yet I still feel like I can trust you." Felicity lets out a sigh, "Why is that?"

"I have one of those faces." Oliver jokes, Felicity seems less amused and stares out at the rain, Oliver nods, "Sorry, yes, you can trust me."

Felicity exhales, "Then I have something to show you." Felicity goes into her bag and pulls out her tablet, she activates a program than runs a small algorithmic code until the encrypted words fit into place and Oliver's mouth drops, Felicity Smoak is revealing to him Robert Queen's portion of The Code.

"When you had me track the 2.6 million dollars, I knew then that Moira Queen had started UNIDAC Industries, and she was essentially selling it to Malcom Merlyn but because the actual worth of the company didn't involve legitimate businesses they did it through what essentially is a mock blind silent auction."

Oliver nervously nodded, "How did you find this?"

I created a brute force search algorithm that traced the 2.6 million dollar investment backwards through other transactions throughout the year until it reached this ledger."

Oliver unleashes a breath, "It's not just a ledger."

Felicity nods her head, "Yes I know that I just couldn't figure out what else to call it, so you know what this is?"

Oliver nods, "Yes, yes I do."

"So you know what the people that have possession of this list are planning?"

"Yes, yes I do."

"So why haven't you done anything about it?"

Oliver sighed, "I am doing something about it."

Suddenly a barrage of bullets start flying through the windows, Oliver pulls Felicity down and covers her, chunks of glass fly over him and onto him as the bullets continue to go over them. Oliver looks down at Felicity and gasps, one of the bullets have planted into her shoulder. Diggle and a few Bratva quickly converge upon the scene and clear out the shooters, who jumped back into their car and drove off once they saw that reinforcements were coming. Diggle enters the building and sees Oliver with his dress shirt off pressing into Felicity's bullet wound.

"Diggle I need you to take her to the Foundry."

"The Foundry?"

"Yes," Oliver nods, "I have a feeling that she was the target."

"What why?"

"She knows what's in The Code, Diggle. Her life is in danger."


	7. The Odyssey

**So Arrow returned this week with in my opinion the best episode of the season (if you want my ratings of all of season 3's episodes check out my latest post in **_**Momentos**_**). It always seems to take arrow around 8-10 episodes into a season to hit their stride, this year they were really trying to hit the whole "Felicity is more than Oliver's wet blanket" theme and they probably played a little too much with that and they probably will also admit that they dragged out the "who killed Sara" a little too long. But with the Climb, now what basically is the resurrection (of both Oliver and the Canary), things are starting to move.**

**As for this piece, I'm working with one of my favorite episodes, Season 1 Episode 14, or otherwise known as, "Oliver gets shot by his mom and Felicity learns his secret" episode. However as we know from this piece's previous chapter, things are going to be a bit different, this will really be the first time that this episode will be entirely AU. I hope you all enjoy it.**

**As always, I don't own anything, at least DC Comic book wise, well I do own some comic books, but really I don't own Arrow comic books, actually I have some on my kindle…okay..1..2..3.**

* * *

**The Odyssey**

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen, for five years I was trapped in Russia, and during my time there I had one goal: survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do that I must become someone else…I must become something else.

* * *

Oliver looks down at Felicity who has now gone unconscious out from the bullet wound in her shoulder, he looks back up at Diggle, "Please God tell me that anyone knows I'm here."

Diggle shakes his head, "No, everyone thinks you're eating at Big Belly in the Glades."

Oliver nodded, "Spray this place down, I don't want any lab getting ahold of any blood and get her to the Foundry, I have to cover my steps and then I will meet you there."

"We could take her to the hospital Oliver." Diggle responds.

Oliver shakes his head, "No, until we figure out who was the target no one is going to the hospital, is that clear?"

Diggle nods and yells a command in Russian for his men to clear out, Diggle carries the bloodied Felicity in his arms and toward his car. An aggressive drive back to the glades later later Diggle arrives at the Foundry, some of his men help get Felicity out of the car and carry Felicity to the Foundry door, Diggle types in the code to the door and carries her down the steps until he tries his best to gently place her on the medical cart.

"Damn it, it just missed the coradic," Diggle gets out some gauze from the medical kit and finds a chunk of concrete, probably the remains of a cinder block from one of Oliver's lifting sessions. He places enough gauze to soak up some of the bleeding and then places the chunk of concrete on the gauze to apply pressure to the wound. Diggle goes to the blood drawer and pulls out a bag of O negative blood, with O Negative basically being safe you to use on almost anyone, almost is his best bet right now.

* * *

_Oliver is crouched into the fetal position in his bed, even with the flannels and the thick quilt to keep him warm the harsh Russian winter is still making him shiver. Suddenly he was rolled out of bed and his head slams against the floor._

_ "Time to get up," Yvgenny remarked, "We have work to do."_

_ Oliver looked out the window, "It's not even dawn yet."_

_ Yvgenny nodded, "Exactly, now hurry, we haven't much time."_

_ "Where are we going?"_

_ "Outside," Yvgenny flatly answered._

_ "To do what?"_

_ "To teach you."_

* * *

Oliver gets into his Bentley, and dials his mother, "Mother, I have an issue I won't be in the office for the rest of the day."

"What happened?" Moira annoyingly responds.

"Some gangbangers hit one of the Big Belly locations, I want to check it out and make sure everything is alright."

"Wow, that's awful." Oliver snarls and shakes his head, his mother _never _uses that word, "Alright Oliver just be careful, they're after the projects they may be after you as well."

"I know, Diggle has got me quite secure in the backseat." Oliver answers, "We will be cautious." Oliver hangs up the phone. Oliver sighs, he wants to get to the Foundry to help Felicity but with the chance that he's being followed, Oliver can't lead his followers to The Foundry. So Oliver drives around the block and goes to the last place they were expecting him, the location of the hit attempt.

* * *

_Oliver is dressed in his winter clothes and by now the sun had slowly started to make its daily appearance. Yvgenny lead Oliver to an empty field and hands him a wooden stick, "Here," Yvgenny started, "I don't trust you with knife yet, so we use wood instead. When we get good with wood, then I give you knife."_

_Oliver thought about making a joke at him being very good with his wood, but he figured now wouldn't be the best of times. Yvgenny grips his wooden stick in his hand, "Now, try to kill me."_

_Oliver looks up, "With a stick?"_

_Yvgenny raised and eyebrow, "You don't think I can kill you with a wooden stick?"_

_Oliver shook his head, "No, I know you can, but I know nothing about fighting, at least give me a gun try to make it even."_

_Yvgenny nodded, "Fine," Yvgenny pulled a small pistol out of his holster and handed it to Oliver, "Now try to kill me, just know that if you miss you wake up the wolves. If you do hit me, you still will wake up the wolves, and they will hopefully feed on my dead body before they get to yours."_

_Oliver sighed, "Fine give me the stick."_

_Yvgenny smacked Oliver in the face with the stick, and Oliver falls into the snow, "Hey I wasn't ready."_

"_The wolves don't care, neither will the men who will look for you and kill you care, in a world like ours you are only as strong as your weakness, and you Oliver are a big weakness to my family, so if I can't teach you how to kill, either I will kill you or you will kill us all. So again Mr. Queen, пусть меня научат вас, как убить (let me teach you how to kill)." For the next six hours, Oliver and Yvgenny battled with the sticks, the process was mostly the same, Yvgenny would drop Oliver to the snow, tell him what he did wrong, and then went back to fighting before Yvgenny would again drop Oliver back in the snow. Soon enough the howl of the wolves signaled for them to go back to the cabin. There Oliver fell immediately asleep while Yvgenny fixed them lunch._

_In his dream he awakens, he turns to see Laurel, both of them are naked, draped by a silk sheet, "Good morning," Laurel smiled._

_Oliver smiled back and then sighed, "I'm sorry."_

"_For what?"_

"_Cheating on you, with Sara, with everyone."_

_Laurel's smiles fades and turns into a slight, snarl, "Did it hurt?"_

"_Did what hurt?"_

"_When they killed you?" The last image before Oliver jolted out of his bed with Oliver taking a bullet to the forehead._

* * *

Oliver makes it back to the scene of the hit, by now a news screw and the police have arrived at the scene. He parks his Bentley and looks around to see any cars stopping, he sees none but then looks up on the rooftops of all the buildings, and sure enough Oliver can point out a man on the rooftop looking at him through a scope, he can't tell if there is a rifle attached to the scope, although he doubts it because there is too much police and news crews in the area that the heat would be unbearable for a while. He also can't determine if the man with the scope was around during the hit attempt. He also doesn't know whether or not information was relayed to whoever is following him that he was in this location for the hit attempt. He sits in his Bentley, trying his best to figure out how to handle this issue. Soon enough there is a tapping on the window, he looks up to see Detective Lance.

"Mr. Queen, I thought I would be seeing you here."

Oliver nods, "Yes, just wondering what the hell happened."

Lance sighs "Apparently the underside of Bertinelli Construction hasn't taken your company's purchase too kindly. I can immediately tell by the ammunition that this is Bertinelli, the style of hit looks very Bertinelli as well, lots of gunfire, no real purpose other than pissing people off and putting innocents in danger. The Triad, I have to hand it to them before you guy offed The Queen, they like to be a little more precise.

Oliver smiles, "So that guy up on the roof with the scope, he must be Triad then right?"

Lance turns in the direction that Oliver is pointing in and at this point the man in the scope is running away, "Oh shit, rooftop, rooftop, guys get that building surrounded that fucker is going down!"

Oliver gets into his Bentley and takes a shortcut through some back streets to beat the officers who are in much slower vehicles. He gets out of the car and cuts through a few alleys, knowing that if this guy is highly professional mafia, than this man who was spying on him must have an escape route, he beats the cops to the building and looks for a car that would be inconspicuous enough and large enough to carry the scope, then he finds it, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, looking in through the lift gate, Oliver sees the remnants of some electrical equipment, Oliver waits by the exit door and soon enough the door slams open and the man carrying the scope and electrical equipment comes bursting through, Oliver grabs him by the throat and slams the man's head into the wall, when he sees that the man isn't completely unconscious he does it again to finish the job, Oliver removes the surveillance equipment and pulls out the man's keys. He dumps the equipment into the Jeep and drives towards his Bentley just as the cops arrive to find an unconscious body in the alley.

* * *

_After their meal, Yvgenny brought them out into forest again, "More playing with sticks?" Oliver groaned._

"_No," Yvgenny commands, "No we kill wolves first then we play with sticks." They traveled through the forest until Oliver saw what Yvgenny must have done while he was asleep, three wolves lay entrapped in snares, all of them at this point had their fir pointing straight up and are growling immensely, Yvgenny nocked his poison tipped arrows and delivered an arrow into the heart of the three beasts. As the two waited for the wolves to slowly die, Oliver got curious, "What happened to the rest of the pack?" Oliver asked._

"_They abandoned them to die, they had become weak, and a pack is only as strong as their weakest link, sound familiar?"_

_Once the wolves are dead, Yvgenny pulls out his knife, "Start fire, fire keeps off…"_

"_Wolves, I know," Oliver responded. Twenty minutes later the pelts were removed from the wolves and the wolf meat was spread throughout the area and Yvgenny placed the snares next to the bits of meat._

"_The wolves eat their own?" Oliver asked._

_Yvgenny nodded, "Yes, when it comes to survival a species will cannibalize itself until there is no one left. Humans do the same."_

"_It is not normal for most humans to eat humans." Oliver answered._

"_But it is normal for humans to kill each other, we are in the survival game Mr. Queen, and to survive we most kill human, now let's go we have work to do."_

"_Shouldn't we be heading to the cabin?" Oliver asked._

_Yvgenny shook his head, "Until you learn there is no cabin, living is cabin is privilege."_

"_So you're going to leave me out here tonight?"_

_Yvgenny shook his head again, "No if you do not learn, I must suffer with you, I am only as strong as my weakness."_

* * *

Oliver rushed down the steps of the Foundry carrying the surveillance equipment in a duffle over his shoulder, Diggle was completes the last stitch on Felicity's shoulder.

"How is she?" Oliver asks.

"Her heart rate is still elevated, but the bleeding has stopped, thanks to your lack of cleaning up."

Oliver nodded, "See it pays to be messy."

Diggle shook his head, "Bratva Captain who plans out all his operations within the millisecond, yet is an absolute slob everywhere else."

Oliver sighs, "So what do you think she's going to think when she wakes up?"

"You mean _if_ she wakes up." The look on Oliver's face causes Diggle to parse his lips, "Fine, sorry," Diggle sighs again, "Well considering the fact that you had her research Floyd Lawton's laptop that was ridden with bullet holes, traced a 2.6 million dollar shady transaction, and had her trace a capsule of Vertigo, and considering that she hacked into the Code, I don't think she's going to be as surprised as you think."

Oliver shakes his head, "This was stupid Diggle, I never should have gotten her involved."

Diggle sighs, "Hard enough for us to admit, but even Bratva Captains and Warriors need help sometimes."

* * *

_The coldness of the night started to make Oliver lethargic, added to the fact that the wind wasn't helping either. Both of them had now covered their faces with balaclavas, Oliver's hand had become virtually frozen into his grip on the wooden stick, the only nice thing about the cold is that the numbness surely was hiding the pain from all the welts that Yvgenny had caused him in the last few hours._

"_Again," Yvgenny commanded._

"_If we stay out any longer than were going to get frostbite." Oliver pleaded._

"_Then we get frostbite," Yvgenny calmly added, "Again, until you put me down."_

"_Just let me fucking hit you and I'll put you down it will save both are lives at this point."_

_Yvgenny shook his head, "If I give you an inch, an inch is all it takes for my entire family to die, either you get it right, or you kill the both of us trying, if I die tonight, I know that my family will still remain strong, if I let you live…"_

_Oliver lunged at Yvgenny, trying to catch him off guard from one of his many lectures on about how weak Oliver is, but Yvgenny's movements hadn't slowed down in the bitter cold, Oliver took a strike to the stomach and then one in the back of the head, before he fell into the snow, "Are you getting tired of falling into the snow? Perhaps you should think about what I've told you, if you do that perhaps we can make it to the cabin before we die."_

* * *

Suddenly the monitors go haywire and Felicity begins to convulse on the med table. Then suddenly Felicity drops still and the monitors go from their staccato to one smooth continuous sound.

"Her heart has stopped." Diggle concludes.

"No shit Diggle, help me with this will you?" Oliver and Diggle pull the defibrillator from the corner, and activate the machine. Oliver pulls the paddles too hard which causes the wiring to come out, "Fuck!"

"I got it Oliver, put one paddle over her heart and one on her abdomen; this is a high grade defibrillator you both of those paddles on her heart and you blow it to shreds."

"I remember Diggle, it was a clean way to kill someone after we tortured them ." Diggle sets the wiring in and the charge fills, Diggle nods, "Clear!" Oliver unleashes the charge which causes Felicity's body to jolt off the table, but her heart is still stopped. Diggle loads the charge once more, and Oliver unleashes a second charge into Felicity's system. This time the monitors begin to make their familiar beating sound, Oliver drops the paddles and checks for a pulse, he feels the feint beat of a pulse in her throat. Oliver then lets out a massive breath, "It's so much easier killing them than saving them."

* * *

_After a moment of rest Oliver pushes himself off the snow, since he's arrived in Moscow, he's been in a massive car accident, kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, shot, threatened to be sold into sex slavery, nearly frozen to death, stalked by wolves, and beaten to a pulp by a small Russian man with a wooden stick. He realizes one conclusion…he has quite a high pain tolerance. He then fetches an idea, Oliver pulls himself into position to battle Yvgenny, Oliver goes to strike Yvgenny high, which usually means that Yvgenny will strike his midsection or his face. Yvgenny goes for his face, and for once he realizes something…if they aim high you hit low…Yvgenny has been doing it for hours, Oliver drives strikes Yvgenny into his midsection, which causes Yvgenny to slightly contract his abdomen to control the pain, Oliver then feels another lesson forming in his head…once you hit low…then hit high as the body wants to protect what hurts…Oliver strikes Yvgenny in the back of the head with the stick, but instead of falling Yvgenny stumbles forward, and then turns to regain his position. "God Damnit just fall!"_

_Yvgenny nods, "Not until you get it right, now keep using your head and we won't die tonight." Oliver's frustration gets the best of him and he charges Yvgenny, he swings high and Yvgenny ducks underneath, Oliver knowing that he will hit low turns his body away from Yvgenny, Yvgenny spins and attempts to kick Oliver, Oliver knowns then to swing high, he swings but misses Yvgenny, and this time Yvgenny gets his shot to the midsection, Oliver knows that Yvgenny will try to put him down from behind, so he moves forward giving Yvgenny less material to hit, the strike the back of his knee hurts but it doesn't put him down._

_Yvgenny nods, "Finally, we can fight now." Yvgenny charges Oliver, he raises his stick to strike Oliver, but Oliver sees it, he's surprised that he sees it, it's almost as if Yvgenny through osmosis has trained him the move in his head. As Yvgenny charges him, Oliver sidesteps him and then crosses his left leg behind his right leg, then Oliver moves his right leg around Yvgeny's right leg, Oliver for a small temporary time has scissored Yvgenny's leg. Oliver slams the butt of the stick into the back of Yvgenny's head and then leans on him, he wraps his right arm around Yvgenny's head and slams him headfirst into the snow. Oliver lets out a long sigh of relief._

_ "You got me down," Yvgenny mentioned, his face full of snow, "Not the most efficient way and surely as you got off the ground you would be killed, but fair is fair, you got me down, let's go check for frostbite."_

* * *

With Felicity stable, Oliver finally sets the equipment that he stole from the spy and lays it in front of the computers. He uses a USB connector to activate the surveillance equipment's software, but immediately runs into a dead end because the software is encrypted, "Sure would be nice to have someone that could break this for me?" Oliver sighs.

"Let me get it upstairs, I'm sure we got some guys that can do some work on it." Diggle mentions.

Oliver shakes his head, "No Diggle, people like this usually have self-destruct sequences in their software for this reason, I need somebody that I can trust to do it right the first time," Oliver turns to Felicity, "So were just going to have to wait."

* * *

_After another unrestful sleep Oliver was once again awoken by Yvgeny, just the same as yesterday the rose before the dawn, all the movement and all the falls from the previous night combined with the Russian cold had made Oliver's body nearly immobile, but Yvgeny showed no mercy, he attacked Oliver with a fervor, Oliver noticed though that even though his strength was depleted his mind and his muscle memory weren't, he soon out of mere instinct could predict Yvgeny's moves, could block them and he could get a few decent strikes on his own. As the sun rose, Yvgenny stopped, "Come we must handle wolves." Ygenny and Oliver traveled to the previous location where they had set last night's wolf meat and snares, unlike the previous day only one wolf was trapped in the snares, Yvgeny took out his bow and Oliver fully assumed at this point that Yvgeny would drive an arrow into the wolf's heart and the two would slowly watch it die, instead Yvgeny's arrow struck the snare, and the rope split apart letting the wolf free._

_ "Did you miss?" Oliver asked._

_ "No," Yvgeny answered, "New rule, always be aware when you are the one being hunted." Well enough ,eight wolves peak out of the forest, and start charging Ygenny and Oliver, "Tree now."_

_ Ygenny found the closest tree and pulled himself up on the branch, he secured himself and reached back for Oliver, and Oliver used Yvgeny's hand as he quickly ascended into the tree as well, Yvgeny and Oliver climbed high enough to feel themselves at a safe distance."_

_ "The wolves set a trap with one of our traps," Oliver nervously chuckled._

_ "This is not a laughing matter," Yvgenny pulls out his arrows, "Keep climbing I will handle them."_

_ "If you knew it was a trap, why did you set one free?" Oliver asked._

_ "So they would come to me, that way I could kill them all." As the wolves surrounded the tree Yvgenny nocked a poison tipped arrow and shot each one eight into his back or into its side. Then just as they did the day before, they remained up in the tree and watched the wolves slowly collapse into the snow and die. "Now we get down," Yvgeny mentions. Once Oliver is down, Yvgenny hands him a knife, "I make fire this time."_

_ Oliver looked up at him, "But I don't know how to skin a wolf, or anything for that matter."_

_ "Good day to learn," Yvgenny answered, "I will tell you while I keep fire burning."_

_ Oliver stared at the knife for a few moments before reluctantly taking it, he walked over to one of the wolves, he kicked it a few times to make sure it was truly dead, once somewhat satisfied that the wolf was dead, Oliver got on his knees next to the wolf._

_ "Roll it on its back and then drive the knife into his chest and pull it straight down until you reach his penis, then cut the penis off."_

_ Oliver sighed, "Poor guy," Oliver gripped the knife strongly in his right hand and then jammed the point of the knife into the wolf's chest, hot steaming blood spattered all over his face, grossly enough the warmth of the blood gave a small soothing warmth to his very cold skin. As Oliver pulled the knife downwards, splitting the beast in half, all his pent up feelings towards everything that happened to him began to symbolize into the dead wolf, his tormentor, the cold, the wolves, Yvgeny, and his father's betrayal, all formulated into this thing that he was now castrating and at that moment he felt no remorse for the dead beast, he felt…proud, he had conquered his snarling tormentor, his death meant that Oliver still lived, still existed on this Earth, never in Oliver's life did he see death to be this satisfying._

* * *

Felicity takes are large inhale of what she can tell even in her entirely groggly state to be very thick air, settled air, like subway, underground air, then she remembers everything that happened, showing Oliver what she found, the plans of all the main organized crime families to absolutely level multiple parts of the city and use elements of their organizations to completely rebuild it. Then she remembers the hit attempt, and now the idea of being underground starts to cause her to panic, because she's either being held captive or worse she's buried alive…and soon Felicity lets out a panicked scream.

"It's okay Felicity, it's okay!" Oliver grabs a hold of her good shoulder and looks into her eyes, "Felicity, this is Oliver, you are in my father's old factory in The Glades."

Felicity breathes in and looks at Oliver's deep blue eyes, "I guess I didn't die…cool." Then Felicity takes a look at her surroundings, and then she sees it, arrows, green hooded suit, "Oh my God."

"Felicity it's okay, I know this is a shock to you," Oliver tries to calm her.

Felicity shakes her head, "No, in fact everything about you just became so unbelievably clear." Then Felicity feels a wetness pooling between her thighs, but it's not the good kind of pooling, like thoughts of Oliver Queen in green tight leather good, no this type of pooling is cold, and it smells a lot like…, "Did I pee myself?" Felicity asks.

Oliver smiles, "Yes, pretty normal when your unconscious for a couple hours, if we took you to a hospital they would probably get the next of kin to change you or get their permission and then put a bed pan down, but we figured you wouldn't appreciate a stranger taking off your underwear without permission.

"I can't believe I just peed myself in front of Oliver Queen, I mean it's embarrassing to pee yourself in front of anyone not just you, but you are my boss so that makes it a little more awkward."

"I was figuring all this would be more of a shock," Oliver uses his hands to display the Foundry.

Felicity smiles, "Which part the Green Hood part or the fact that your Russian Bratva."

Oliver whips his head sharply back to Felicity, "How did you figure that out, my existence in the Bratva is not revealed in the code."

"Like I mentioned before, you brought me a laptop riddled with bullet holes that belonged to Floyd Lawton also known as Deadshot, who just happened to die the night of your attendance at UNIDAC Industries fake auction, which you personally had me track down, which now that I think about it, you already knew about it but you needed someone to trace the transaction back, you had me trace a black arrow, and then you asked me to do a spectro analysis on a capsule of Vertigo, and all of this happening while the Russian Bratva takes The Glades which also happens to be in time with the arrival of Oliver Queen's return from Russia. I may be blonde, but I'm not that blonde."

"Oliver this just proves you're not too great with your cover stories." Diggle smiles as he walks into the room.

Felicity turns to Diggle, "So are you the black hood?" Felicity seizes and then grimaces, "Wow that came out terribly racist."

Diggle laughs, "No, we have no idea who he is, only who he works for."

Oliver nods, "The darker hood works for someone who is called The Keeper, or the keeper of the code the same code that you just broke into and shortly thereafter almost died."

"But if the other archer was after me why didn't we get shot with arrows instead of bullets?" Felicity asks.

"Because they don't know that you broke the encryption yet, but what we do know is that one or both of us was being followed," Oliver points to the surveillance equipment, "And one or both of us are being targeted. So for the time being I'm afraid that for your protection you've just become a hostage to the Bratva."  
"This sounds like a bad romance novel," Felicity scoffs, "Woman in danger, and the only person that can help her is a handsome mobster," Oliver smiles and Felicity stops herself once again, "Not that I'm saying your handsome or anything, well let's say it's a well-known fact. That sounded weird."

Oliver smiled and nodded, "For now you will have to stay here, now that you are alive I will arrange my associates to create a suitable living quarters for you. In the meantime my associate Mr. Diggle and I was wondering if you would like to officially join us in on our little team?"

Felicity sighs, "I appreciate you doing your best to keep me alive but no, you're a gangster, who is passing off his actions onto the city as being a heroic vigilante. I know that what you were using me for when Floyd Lawton showed up dead, and it took a lot of red wine to try to get that out of my conscience."

"Floyd Lawton killed my brother, and he killed many others, you saved more lives than you hurt." Diggle reminds her.

Felicity sighs, "I told myself that as well, I kept helping you hoping that I could show you the ways of your family, but you're the Hood as well. I just, I just can't imagine my life in organized crime, I'm sorry I should be more appreciative but…"

Oliver places a hand on Felicity's good shoulder, and Felicity closes her eyes on the touch, "Starling City is filled with organized crime, if the Bratva didn't come than those responsibilities would be taken by someone else. What we're doing here what Diggle and I are doing are taking all the families down piece by piece, and once all the families are disposed of there will be no one to enact the plans on The Code. But with this keeper and his archer we need to accelerate our operations, Diggle and I can't do it alone, if you can on your spare time with your equipment can take down the code, just imagine what you can do with a billionaires equipment at your disposal."

"Not with this system," Felicity walks over the computers, "This system hurts me, not as much as this bullet wound does right now, but it still hurts me, this system looks like it's from the eighties, and not the good eighties with Madonna and leg warmers." Felicity inhales, "As payment for saving my life and keeping me safe, I will help you, but only Arrow business, I will help you until everything is clear and after that I want to go back to my boring life of being an I.T. girl."

Oliver nods, "Okay."

"First things, first though," Felicity starts, "I have to get some new pants and underwear; I still can't believe I peed myself."

"We set up facilities downstairs, there is a pair of never won boxers of mine in the locker in their as well as a spare set of clothes, they will obviously be big but they are dry."

Felicity sighs, "Thank you, and not just for the change of clothes."

Oliver nods and Felicity goes toward the bathroom to change.

"So how do you want to play this Oliver?" Diggle starts, "Someone tried to make a hit on you, you think your mother knows?"

Oliver shakes his head, "The hit was probably remnants of Bertinelli, the constructions workers know the locations, we had food ordered by you sent to that spot, plus Lance was right, it was done in Bertinelli fashion, what we don't know is if it was a bunch of old Bertinelli going for revenge or if someone made a deal. Either way you arrived with Bratva right?"

Diggle nods, and Oliver nods back, "Than we leak out that Bratva did the hit, claim that it is a message that the Bratva must now be respected in Starling City and if there respect isn't granted there will be more violence."

Diggle smiles, "No one will say anything because they don't want to admit they botched the hit."

Oliver nodded, "And it makes us look weaker than we actually are, perhaps one of them will be dumb enough to challenge us."

* * *

"I practically gift wrapped this for you!" Moira screams into her phone, Moira takes a long inhale and exhale, "Fine, we know one survived what of the other?"

"No signs of the girl anywhere," a voice answers back.

Moira grimaces, "You had one job to do, wound my son and kill the girl and what you are telling me that you did neither? My son called me and is trying to cover his tracks right now, whatever there is another time and date for that, but for now, you have twenty-four hours to find the girl and kill her or I cover this up and you know what that means." Moira ends the call and slams the phone onto the desk.

"Rough day?" Walter walks to Moira's office.

"You have no idea," Moira answers.

* * *

**Just to give you a heads up, might be a little surprised at where I take this next time...**


	8. A Different Way

**No chapter last week, I left my tablet at work so it's really hard to look at the episodes and write only using your computer or doing off my old Iphone. But GOOD NEWS! (Top Gear joke for anyone that watches) I have my tablet back and I'm ready to go! I told you that things were going to be a little different…so ready for the big surprise? We're moving into season 2! Yeah so a lot of the characters that dominate the end of season one are either dead or locked up so instead of going straight to the Undertaking, which would end the story, were moving over to season 2, at least partially. With the move to season 2 there will be some changes that occur to fit the current storyline, again, the farther we get into this piece the more AU it becomes. This chapter will be based off of season 1 episode 14, and season 2 episode 1. Hope you enjoy!**

**I do not own, because if I did I would be rich, and I'm not rich, so therefore I do not own.**

* * *

**A Different Way**

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen, for five years I was trapped in Russia, and during my time there I had one goal: survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do this I must become someone else…I must become something else.

Oliver Queen makes his way into the entrance of Verdant, tonight will be a soft opening for the club as only a small select group that paid twice as much cover and enough extra to get a secure spot on the list will be entering through the doors, so Oliver finds it a little strange to see his little sister talking to his General Manager Tommy Merlyn.

"Tommy why is my sister here?"

Tommy smiles, "I figured the more Queens the better, so say hello to my assistant."

Oliver nods, "You're not even old enough to drink?"

Thea smiles, "But I am old enough to run a bar and I need you to deal with our liquor distributor, who shorted us on yesterday's delivery, and one of the bartenders called in sick, which she must have fucking cancer because she has to know that the tips are going to be through the roofs tonight, but if we don't get those two things taken care of we won't need to be worrying so much because this place won't make it to the grand opening."

Oliver smiles at Tommy and Tommy laughs, "I told you she's good at this."

Oliver nodded, "Glad to see that," Oliver pulls out his phone, "I'll get the liquor distributor here within the hour, they won't want to piss off a Queen." Oliver dials the distributor on his phone and within moments, he's threatened to out them of their poor delivery skills to every bar in the country if the rest of the liquor order doesn't arrive within the next thirty minutes, the man on the other line apologizes profusely and says that they will be there within fifteen and will receive a deduction on their next order. "Thank you," Oliver says before ending his call, Oliver walks into the corner of the bar enters a code into the keypad to unlock the door that leads to the Foundry below. Oliver strips his shirt off and starts working out on a dummy preparing for his quick escapade as The Hood before having to return in time for the soft opening of his club.

"You better take it easy tonight if you going to have anything left for the opening," Diggle jokes.

"This is me taking it easy," Oliver responds as he cracks a bamboo stick over the dummy, "Got this guy named Ken Williams he seems to be trying to start a real estate racket in the glades, he's done this shit before in other cities he's made millions only to leave other's homeless, you guys can call it a night I don't expect much trouble."

Felicity is working at her computers and is able to pull up a dating profile on Ken Williams he maybe a con man whose ripped off many of the poor, but he's also a single father with two young sons, she doesn't want them to become orphans, so without much thought she activates the emergency locks on the doors, as Oliver types in the code to unlock the door that leads to the alley, the door won't open, he snarls, "Felicity! Did you just…"

"I computer overrided your lock, just a little."

"What are you doing?"

"Look I am under your protection and I appreciate that, but I am not in the business of orphaning two little boys."

"He's only getting a warning." Oliver responds

"Has it ever occurred to you that you could do some real good in this city besides just using your hood and leather pants to front for the Bratva?"

Oliver glares at her and reaches around her to deactivate the override, "Felicity, you're not the only one that knows how to reboot my system."

"I made a mistake," Felicity snaps back at him.

"Getting in my way I don't disagree with you," Oliver returns.

"No, staying here doing whatever I'm doing, I'm leaving."

"Then die," Oliver responds.

"So be it," Felicity counters as she gets ready to go up the stairs to leave, Oliver puts the override back on which essentially locks Felicity as well as him and Diggle in the Foundry.

Oliver grimaces, "I'm sorry Felicity, I guess I'm a little hyped up on adrenaline for the opening tonight and getting ready to go out as The Hood."

"Will Ken Williams get that same explanation tonight?" Felicity snarkly asks.

Oliver sighs, "Look I promise it's just a warning, no one will get hurt you can listen to me if you want, we have a communications device that Diggle and I use, we can get one installed for you too."

"Fine," Felicity goes back down the stairs, "But don't think for a second that I'm too scared to leave, I can disappear without a trace, I've done it before I can do it again."

Oliver smiles, "If that's so, why are you staying here?"

"Because I want to save this city from what I saw on the ledger, and the best way I can do that is working with you and Mr. Diggle."

Oliver nods, "Then why don't you continue your searches for another code, while I get Ken Williams to leave Starling City alone."

* * *

Moira Queen opens the front door, "Thank you for coming," Moira smiles, "It is so good to see you Frank." Moira hugs him, "It's been far too long."

"My interests in China have kept me away more than I've liked," Frank nods, "But with everything that has happened lately I felt it was best that I return."

"And that's why I've brought you here tonight Frank, I think it's time for us to make a move."

"Is this because of what happened to your son?"

"With Robert, with my son twice now, I've reached my limit."

"That's a lot to confide in me Moira." Franks sighs.

"Robert did," Moira answers back, "He tried, with you, because he had his misgivings, and he knew you did too."

"And he was murdered," Franks responds, "That is a cautionary tale for both of us."

"Yes I know," Moira continues, "We were not born into this, you started this because of your wife and daughter, your wife was killed by Bertinelli, now your daughter was killed by Bratva, we started this to fix the city, not to destroy it, and all I can see on the horizon right now is all out war and destruction."

* * *

_For weeks now the routine became machine-like and monotonous, Yvgenny would wake Oliver up before dawn, they would train, once the sun was at its peak, they would retreat to the cabin, Yvgenny would make the mid-day meal while Oliver either slept or continued to work on his form. After their meal, they would check the snares for wolves, or Yvgenny would teach Oliver the art of tracking, there they would track the pack and set up new snares. If a wolf was caught in the snare Yvgenny would kill the wolf while Oliver skinned it. After their hunt, they would train until they were both too tired to move on, and at that point they would retire for the night to start the process all over again. _

_Their evening session was going well, Oliver was now more than holding his own, Oliver would use his speed and strength to maneuver Yvgenny into a position of strength and then Yvgenny would use his experience to counter Oliver usually leading to a draw in the fight. After another session of equal competition, Yvgenny notices something in the distance._

_ "We have visitors," Yvgenny observed, "Back to the cabin."_

* * *

Under careful watch of Felicity, Oliver convinced or at least scared Ken Williams enough to stop his antics in The Glades and leave Starling City alone. When Oliver returned Felicity had already moved on to creating more search algorithms and didn't even acknowledge him as he walked passed her and into the bathroom. Oliver showered and dressed himself in black suit, white shirt, and dark green tie. When he exited Felicity was busy preparing dinner for herself, "You dress up nice," Felicity comments while waiting for her Chinese to reheat in the microwave.

"I will bring down some better food for you when I get the chance." Oliver smiles.

"Don't worry about it, I don't want to interrupt your multiple escapades tonight." Felicity groans, Oliver smiles and walks away, "You named your club Verdant? Really? Could you make yourself any more obvious that you are the Green Hood?"

Diggle chuckles in the distance, "Don't stay out too late Oliver, the lead detective on the hit attempt wants to talk to us tomorrow morning."

"And apparently you two were quite friendly back in the day," Felicity adds, as she points to a picture on her screens.

Oliver turns to the screen and his eyes go wide, "Makenna?"

"Mmm Hmm," Felicity adds, "And I got an idea."

"Mm?" Oliver responds.

"Nice to know you two already know how to communicate in grunts," Diggle adds.

"Anyways," Felicity continues, "I work up a little tech, while you get questioned on various things including my whereabouts, do your little flirty flirt thing by which after tonight you will have plenty of practice, and slip said tech underneath her phone, it will transmit all her calls to me, and boom, we will learn everything that she knows."

"Hm," Oliver grunts again while Diggle chuckles under his breath once more, "It's not how I typically get information."

"How do you typically do it?" Felicity asks.

"I find the person, then I put the fear of God into them until they talk," Felicity's eyes go wide for a second and Oliver nods to her, "But we can try your way."

Oliver heads up to the stairs to enter in the club when Felicity stops him, "Wait!"

Oliver turns around and smiles, at her, the smile causes Felicity to catch her breath, she quickly refocuses, "Uh, tomorrow, I have a feeling that they're gonna start tying you to Bratva, I mean all this started when you came back from Russia, and you have a Bratva tattoo, we really need to work on subtlety with you."

Oliver nods, "And how do you know that I have a Bratva tattoo?"

The microwave goes off and Felicity turns around more to hide her blush than anything, "Uh, well you tend to work out shirtless, not that I'm watching you or anything, well I was because I had to see the tattoo, but not in a undressing you with my eyes or anything, although your half dressed anyway when you work out, not that I again notice that…"

Oliver walks back down the stairs and places his hand on Felicity's shoulder, Felicity slightly shudders from the touch but it does calm her, "Don't worry about that, we have a story in place."

Felicity scoffs, "Well I hope it's better than my friends coffee shop is in a bad neighborhood."

Oliver smiles again, "Don't worry it is."

* * *

"Mmm," Thea Queen chews on the hot dog from the vendor standing just outside the parking lot of Verdant, "Who knew street meat would taste so good?"

"I knew," Tommy adds, "We've been feasting off that guy for weeks." Tommy pays the man a little extra and the two walk back towards the club, "You see Thea, if we're going to have a club in The Glades, we have to respect The Glades, if we don't do so this place could be burnt to the ground and looted within days."

When suddenly a boy in a red hoodie flashes by them and snatches Thea's purse.

"Hey!" Tommy rings out and chases after him, with Thea following by as best as she can without falling over in her boots. The man runs a few hundred feet until he reaches a dead end, the boy in the red hoodie turns around and glares at the two approaching him in the alleyway.

"Look, just hand her back the purse and we'll forget this ever happened."

The boy in the red hoodie snarls at him before leaping off the side wall and par coring over the alley wall.

"Just fucking great," Thea groans. Tommy laughs, "I wouldn't worry yet, looks like Flash carries a wallet chain."

* * *

Oliver walks into the police station with his British lawyer in tow. He spots Makenna at her desk approaches her, "Makenna?" Oliver does his best to feint his surprise.

"Oliver!" Makenna bolts out of her chair and hugs him, "It's been a long time."

Oliver smiles, "It has."

"Follow me to the back, we can talk in private." Makenna points with her head.

"Unfortunately I have been back down that hall before and I know that is where the interrogation rooms are."

"Detective Lance wants to speak with you, let me check if he's there." Makenna answers. As Makenna leaves, Oliver sees Makenna's phone on her desk, he picks up the phone and puts the microtech underneath the cover of her phone. Makenna returns to her desk just as Oliver places the phone back down, "Yup, he's ready for you."

Oliver turns to his lawyer and he nods at Oliver, "It's alright Oliver, I'm here."

Oliver nods, "Okay then, I wasn't expecting this but let's go." Oliver follows Makenna into an interrogation room where Detective Lance is waiting for him.

"Oliver Queen, have a seat, I see you have brought representation with you."

Oliver nods, "I get a little spooked around police stations, this is my lawyer, James Callis."

Lance nods, "The Dodger, haven't seen you in town for a while."

The man nods, "Been in Europe lately, the exchange rate is better."

The four all sit down, Detective Lance opens a folder, "So Mr. Queen, we have two worrying details that have come to our attention, I thought this was the best place to discuss them so they don't leak to the press before we've made our conclusions."

"And Mr. Queen very much appreciates that," the Dodger reiterates.

"First of all Ms. Bertinelli the two of you had a relationship of sorts?"

Oliver nods, "Yes we slept together, and we both shared losses of loved ones, we were good therapy for one another."

"Yeah, well she told us you have a Bratva tattoo on your chest, and it isn't much of a coincidence that your guard killed the Triad Queen and shortly after Bratva took The Glades. Then second there was an attempted hit by what we thought to be Bertinelli, but further evidence suggests it was Bratva and they have claimed responsibility for the hit. Plus, an eyewitness puts you on the scene with a blonde woman who we have deciphered to be a Ms. Felicity Smoak."

Oliver nods, and turns to The Dodger, "James?"

The Dodger nods, "We knew that this scenario would play out at some point during Mr. Queen's return so we have supplied you with a written statement, while in Russia as a means of survival, Mr. Queen was forced into the Bratva organization, he was able to stay alive due to his loyalty, and eventually over his time there he was able to receive captain status. This allowed Oliver to move to any location in the world and obviously he wanted to return to Starling City, eventually the Bratva discovered that Mr. Queen would not set up operations in Starling and that he just used the Bratva to return home. In response we assume that the Bratva have come to Starling City to seek vengeance for Mr. Queen's betrayal."

"This is why I also had a further relationship with Ms. Bertinelli, she wanted to betray her father, I had betrayed the Bratva." Oliver adds.

Detective Lance takes the written statement, "And the whereabouts of Ms. Smoak."

Oliver shakes his head, "I don't know, I suspect that they are going to use her as a bargaining chip for my return to Bratva, or they have already killed her, or worse sold her into slavery." Oliver rubs his face to create tears, "I just wanted to go home, I never intended for any of this to happen."

Detective Lance sighs, "I could offer you protective custody but that would totally ruin the whole going home part, I could offer you a police officer to tail you until this investigation into Bratva and Ms. Smoak finishes."

Oliver shakes his head, "No, Mr. Diggle is fine, there is no need to put your officers in danger."

Lance sighs again, "I can't believe I'm going to tell you this kid, but perhaps your best bet is to join your mother's business, and not Queen Consolidated if you know what I mean, she has the muscle to keep you safe."

Oliver nods, "Thank you but I've done enough in Russia to never want to be involved in that aspect of my family's business or anyone else's business again, I'm starting fresh, I work for Queen Consolidated, I have opened a club, once the club turns a profit I will offer protection money and hopefully they will reside their threats against me."

Lance nods, "Good luck kid."

* * *

A ringing noise goes off on Felicity's computer, she looks at the contact that Makenna is dialing and is pleased to see that it is Detective Lance, "Sergeant this is Detective Hall, I went down to visit Mr. Leonov like you asked me to, he says to me the hit was not Bratva, but there was some interest in Ms. Smoak from the Bratva but he doesn't know if she was taken by the Bratva."

"That means she was," Lance answers, "What about Queen?"

"He said Queen came to him a few months ago, looking for a place to dump the body of the Triad Queen, he asked him when he was starting an operation but he told him he wasn't ready yet."

"So either Queen is lying to us or to the Bratva, if Queen has any brains at all I'd say he's lying to us."

Felicity turns to Oliver, "Looks like Lance didn't buy your story, you really need to do better at this lying thing."

"I didn't want him to believe I was lying, I just needed him to have doubt."

* * *

_Oliver and Yvgenny made their way back to the cabin just as darkness fell, when they enter two figures were sitting in the room. One was a large bearded and muscular man warming himself next to the stove, the other was a more scrawny man who had been beaten, bloodied, tied, and blindfolded to a chair._

_"Slade, приятно вас видеть." Yvgenny hugged the bigger man, "это Oliver Queen."_

_The bigger man smiled at him, "Я слышал, выжестко сукин сын , восемь сократить да? (I heard you are a tough son of a bitch, eight slashes huh?)"_

_Oliver's broken Russian couldn't understand the man's heavy Russian accent, but he deciphered "eight" and "slash" and figured it out from past experience._

_Yvgenny turned to Oliver, "Oliver, это Slovac Wolsky, мы называем его Slade."_

_Yvgenny walked up to the man tied to a chair at this point he was wimpering, "Мы не будем предупреждать вас снова, вы будете говорить с нами ? (We will not warn you again, will you talk to us?"_

_"Я сказал вам, что я ничего не знаю , я клянусь! (I know nothing I swear!)" The man whimpered once again._

_Yvgenny turns again to Oliver, "Oliver, if you want to leave this cabin, treat him like you would a wolf."_

* * *

In a warehouse in The Glades, the leaders of the hit squad sit around a television, one of them checks his phone, "Looks like the others are out of sight, it's just the four of us now."

One man stands up, "Good, because Bratva has the girl, they won't deal with us, and we won't be able to find her in time, so if we are going to save ourselves, we are going to have to put us in a better negotiating position."

"And how do we do that?"

"We create leverage."

* * *

A detective for the Starling City Police Department enters the interrogation room where a man wearing a red hoodie is sitting, "Roy William Harper Jr. Where's senior?"

"Norris cemetery," Roy answers.

"Sorry to hear that," The detective responds.

"You and an army of bookies. Can I go?"

"No. You've been identified as a suspect in a purse snatching. It's quite a résumé you've compiled here, petty theft, B&amp;E, robbery, petty theft, stolen car, well, it's nice to change things up once in a while, and petty theft. You got something against banks kid?"

"Well, it is hard to run with one under your arm." Roy snarkly answers back.

The detective smirks, "Well, maybe you'll learn a few new skills in prison."

Roy sighs, "Look, I don't want to steal. Ok? I don't have any other choice. My mother, she she has a problem."

"Yeah, her son's a moron."

"No," Roy growls, "Vertigo, she got hooked on Vertigo. She kicked it, when the supply dropped, but I guess she'd done enough that it messed her up. Look, we're not privileged enough to have as much as other people. Ok?"

Thea had heard enough from the other side of the one way glass, "Fine, let him go, it's just a damn purse, right?"

* * *

Moira Queen picks up her phone, "Yes?"

"It has been arranged," Franks voice rings out through the phone.

"Thank you for this," Moira responds, "Whatever needs to be done, please leave Walter out of this, I don't want him damned to hell for something he had nothing to do with."

"I promise," Franks replies, "That is the fate that awaits us I'm afraid."

* * *

"_I can't do this," Oliver mumbled to himself as he watched the man in the chair squirm for his life, "Пожалуйста, не больно мне у меня есть семья ! (Please don't hurt me I have a family!)"_

_Ygenny approached Oliver, "Мы только так сильны, как наш самое слабое звено , не заставляй меня убить вас , как хорошо. (We are only as strong as our weakest link, don't make me have to kill you as well)."_

_Oliver closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, he grabbed the knife from the holster on his leg and approached the man, "Мне очень жаль (I'm so sorry)." The man screamed out in agony just before Oliver plunged the knife into his chest._

* * *

Laurel and Thea make their way out of the police station, "Thanks for helping me out with this whole thing, it was probably a giant waste of time for you."

Laurel smiles, "Don't worry about it Thea."

Suddenly a van pulls up, four hooded men carrying automatic weapons jump out of the van, "Thea Queen in the van now!"

"Who are you!" Thea screams out.

"We were supposed to kill your brother, but you will work just fine." One of the men points the gun at Laurel, "Don't try anything heroic Ms. Lance!"

Thea turns to Laurel, Laurel nods, "You better go, I have someone that can help you."

Oliver notices that his encrypted phone is ringing, Oliver answers it, "Detective Lance?"

"No, it's Laurel."

"I told you to never speak to me again."

"I know, but it's urgent, Thea Queen has been captured, by four hooded men, one was missing a hand, recently sutured, they must have been involved in the hit on Oliver Queen because they said that they tried to kill him as well."

Oliver squeezes the phone so hard he feels as if he's going to break it, "I'll see what I can do."

"That's it? Aren't you going to…" Oliver hangs up the phone and turns to Diggle.

"Thea has been taken by the same guys that did the hit on Felicity and I."

"What!" Felicity shouts out in the distance, "Well go after her!"

"Thea will be safe, they aren't going to kill her, they are going to use her as leverage against my mother, my mother will handle it surely."

"Really?" Felicity stomps in front of Oliver, "You're the hood, you can stop them easily."

"No I can't," Oliver responds, "I need the hit squad kept alive, I want to know what my mother is planning, going there and killing them will do me no good, no, the move is to watch how my mother makes her play."

"And then watch them put a bunch of holes in your sister."

"Look, when I put on the hood, it's kill or be killed, that is what kept me alive in Russia."

"But you're not in Russia, you can do things differently." Felicity adds.

Oliver's eyes widen, soften for a moment, and then return to their coldness, "We need to find these guys."

Felicity smiles, "I've been doing that since I got down here."

"You were supposed to be searching for other pieces of The Code."

"I'm a woman Oliver, I can do more than one thing at a time."

Oliver looks at Diggle whose holding back a smile, "Laurel told me that one of them was missing a hand, the sutures were still fresh."

"The port," Diggle shouts, "The night we stopped Bertinelli's crew from taking over the port, I'm sure either of us could have shot one through the hand."

Oliver nods, "Go into Starling City General's ER registry on November 15th, see if there were any claims for disfigured hands for a white man ages twenty-five to forty."

Felicity works her magic and after a few moments she smiles, "One, Jeff Dimitri, ex-Marine."

Oliver nods, "Phone records?"

"Even better," Felicity smiles, "GPS on his phone."

* * *

Thea Queen sits tied to a chair, a blindfold around her eyes, tears are streaking down his face.

"Look man," one of the men starts, "Offing Oliver Queen is one thing, we were going to kill him, even if mommy didn't want us to and I get that, but his sister? She's about the age of my daughter?"

"And your daughter will be six feet in the ground next to you if you don't get your act straight." Jeff adds, "Besides, Thea is just a beneficiary, she's too innocent to know the score, so Moira Queen will do anything to save Thea Queen innocent little mind."

"Why are you guys talking about my mother like she's some monster?" Thea cries.

"Because your mother is a monster." Jeff answers.

"Get away from her!" The synthesized voice of The Hood rings out in the darkness.

Jeff snarls, "I'm so sick of that guy, I guess that his appearance gets me off the hook for doing this!" Jeff pulls a gun from his holster and points it at Thea's chest, before he can pull the trigger and arrow comes whizzing at him knocking the gun out of his hand."

Another hit man starts shooting his rifle in the direction of the arrow's flight, but Oliver has already moved back into the darkness, one men unknowingly approaches him and Oliver is able to subdue him quite quickly, he pulls and arrow out of his quiver preparing to stab the man with it but holds himself back, he thinks back to what Felicity told him and draws up and idea. Oliver instead nocks the arrow and shoots another rifle out of a hit man's hands. This reveals his position to the other hit man standing next to him, the man charges at him, and Oliver takes him down, he gets up just in time to spin around and wield his bow into the third hit man's face knocking him out as well. He looks around for Jeff Dimitri and spots him pulling Thea out of the warehouse. Oliver tracks him down through the alley and tracks Jeff down just as he is about to start the van with Thea in it. Oliver pulls an explosive arrow out and shoots on the tires, the arrow explodes knocking the wheel from the axel disabling the car. Oliver breaks the window of the driver's side and pulls Jeff out of the window.

Jeff looks the him straight in the eyes and smiles, "Do it, kill me, you're no hero, you're Bratva, do your job and put me away."

"Not this time," Oliver snarls before knocking him out.

Detective Lance arrives on the scene to see four men cuffed to a chain link fence, just before he approaches the men Oliver approaches Lance, Lance and the remaining cops pull their guns on him.

"Do you know who they are?" Oliver's synthesized voice calls out to Lance.

"They're the ones that kidnapped Thea Queen for sure." Lance responds.

"They've done a little more than that, bring them in, they'll talk," Oliver replies.

"This is not your style, usually they're a little more dead."

"I'm doing it differently this time," Oliver replies before using a grappling arrow to leave the scene.

* * *

_Oliver looks down at the skinned carcass in front of him, his hands twitching, the blade still in his hand twitching blood with his movements in his right hand from side to side, never in a million years did he think that he could kill a man, nevertheless skin him while still being alive._

"_Онсумасшедший ублюдок , чем я думал , что он готов (He's a crazier bastard than I thought, he's ready.)" Slade laughs._

_Yvgenny places a hand on Oliver's shoulder,"We clean up the mess, we will feed the carcass to the wolves, and we'll take the skin with us, you are ready Oliver, we can leave the cabin now."_

_Oliver nods silently, his brain not wanting to react, he just stares at the skinless carcass one last time before Slade begins scooping the body parts with a shovel._

* * *

After meeting with police for the second time today, she gives her statement and then has a policemen drive her to the address of Roy Harper. Roy opens the door, see's Thea, and then immediately closes it.

"How do you know where I live?" Roy calls out from behind the door.

"The cops drove me here, look can we not do this with the door between us?"

Roy walks outside looks at the cop who's parked outside, and looks back at Thea, "So I guess you're not pressing charges because you think you can change my life so you can tell all your prep school friends what a saint you are by helping the disadvantaged."

Thea shakes her head in disbelief, "You don't know a thing about me."

Roy smiles, "Thea Queen, trust fund brat, totaled a car on your birthday which was also your birthday present, loves designing clothing labels, and is usually in the tabloids for partying too much, and now helps operate a club even though she's too young to drink, did I leave anything out?"

"Yeah, dead father, a group of hit men who tried to kill my brother, also kidnapped me, my brother was missing for five years in Russia, and now he's basically nothing like what he was before, plus she really wants her purse back."

"Hm, you really showed some sack for coming down to The Glades in the middle of the night."

"You must not know the value of a vintage purse."

Roy rolls his eyes and shuts the door, a minute later he returns with her purse, "Don't bother looking everything is there, except for a pack a cigarettes, it's a nasty habit you got there."

"Tell me about it," Thea grumbles.

"I'll give you a piece of advice, don't fall for every sob story that come from people like me, you have a good night."

* * *

Oliver makes his way down to Foundry, Felicity swivels in her chair and smiles at him, "You told Detective Lance what I said to you."

Oliver unleashed a small smile, "Sometimes the best advice should be repeated."

Felicity smiles at him, "So what's the play?"

"The four men will confess to the attempt on the both of us…"

"And they implicate your mother in the process," Felicity nods, "Not bad for a man that can't tell a clever lie to save his life."

Oliver walks over and places a hand on Felicity's shoulder, "No, I can tell the best of lies, I just can't tell them to you."

Diggle approaches him, "I got word through our sources that Frank Chen wants to meet with the hood, he said he would come unarmed."

Oliver nods, "Fair enough, least I could do since you killed his daughter."

* * *

Roy Harper answers his phone, "Who is this?"

"This is Tommy Merlyn, the man that was getting a hot dog with Thea Queen the other day, and don't at all take that the wrong way."

"Wouldn't blame you," Roy answers back.

"Well I was thinking, especially as I got some people that work for my dad to figure out your number and you know what my dad does on the side right?"

"I have an idea."

"So for lack of a better term I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse, either you get your ass down here in the next twenty minutes so I can give you a job as security at my club, or I find two of my dad's best knock around guys to pummel you into oblivion."

"Thea Queen didn't put you up to this right?"

"Of course not, the fact that your built, you obviously keep in shape from running like the wind, and you can avoid getting charges to stick, you are perfect candidate."

"Fine, I'm walking that way now."

"Good," Tommy laughs, "Just don't steal any purses on the way there."

Roy hangs up the phone and as he turns the corner he sees for men ganging up on a girl ready to rape her, "Hey, back off guys!" Roy yells out.

One of the men turn to him and pulls a gun, "What are you going to do about, run a long hoodie, and go find a wallet to snatch, just as the man is about to fire, a blond woman dressed in leather darts out from the darkness, using her long stick she obliterates the men until they are all unconscious.

"Who the hell are you?" Roy yells.

"Run along little boy," The blonde calls out before she disappears back into the darkness.

* * *

"You ready?" Makenna asks Detective Lance.

Lance laughs, "I've been waiting for this day my whole life." The two detectives enter Queen Consolidated follow by a dozen officers, they show a warrant to security and are escorted to the executive elevator of Queen Consolidated, when they reach the top Moira Queen is waiting for them.

"Can we talk somewhere else, I don't want to discuss this in front of Walter."

Lance smiles widely, "We are not here to talk, Moira Queen you are under arrest for conspiracy to arrange a murder and you have a right to remain silent."

* * *

Frank Chen's Mercedes stops on a curb underneath a portion of monorail that connects downtown Starling City to the city's port. Oliver dressed in his green hood attire steps out from the shadows.

"I appreciate you agreeing to meet with me, I would understand why you would decline my invitation, but no worries, my daughter was doing business with the wrong people and it got her killed."

"Then why are you here?" Oliver responds.

"To do a deal," Frank Chen pulls out a similar flash drive to the one that was in his father's possession, "This is the Triad's portion of The Code, I will give it to you as a token of our new partnership, I have traced your dealings, you clearly work for the Bratva, and I am sure that who you work for would greatly appreciate being in possession of this." Frank holds out the flash drive and Oliver carefully snatches it.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to kill Malcom Merlyn."

* * *

**Sorry for getting this out a little late, had some difficulties technical and mental with this chapter. Hope you enjoyed the mix of seasons one and two. Plus, Makenna, Laurel, Felicity, and the Canary are all in play with Oliver (rubbing hands together in excitement) should be fun!**


	9. The Box

**We're back! Who missed me? Don't lie I know you all did! Been super busy lately but I have a little lull time to add a few of these stories in. If you've haven't read the previous pieces before this one I would highly recommend you do so as there are some serious AU situations. If have been a loyal follower I know it's been a while so you may want to revisit the previous pieces as well.**

**This "episode" uses uses elements of season 1 episodes 16-18 and season 2 episode 2.**

**But before we begin my new top five "Who's in the casket!"**

**1\. Thea- Hence why she can't be resurrected because she's already done it once, episodes seem to be very Thea centric lately**

**2\. Laurel- Easiest to get rid of, her path this season is simply to help resurrect her sister, after that what else? This character died when Tommy died.**

**3\. Diggle- Dies trying to avenge his brother**

**4\. Felicity- Because it will bring back Oliver into the Darkness**

**5\. Quentin Lance- Dies saving Oliver from Damien Dahrk.**

**No without further ado...The Box**

**As always I do not own…because….because I just don't alright!**

* * *

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen, for five years I was trapped in Russia, and during my time there I had one goal: survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do this I must become someone else…I must become something else.

* * *

Oliver inhales deeply at the proposition that Frank Chen gave him, "Malcom Merlyn is now the most well protected man in Starling City, no one will be able to get even close to him."

Frank Chen nods, "I know, but if you don't kill him I won't give you the encryption code to unlock the drive, and don't even try hacking it because it is designed to destroy itself if tampered with.

"Than I don't accept you offer," Oliver responds, his voice modulating hiding his actual voice.

"I understand, keep the drive as a sign of good faith," Frank Chen turns and enters his limousine, as the limousine rolls by Oliver, Chen lowers his window, "Just know that the longer Malcom Merlyn is in possession of Unidac Industries, the closer chance we all are to death, no matter what is on the code, he's a ticking time bomb and he needs to be stopped.

* * *

"_над здесь, (Over here)," Slade commanded Oliver as they surveyed the abandoned apartment. Slade tried to open the door but the door unlike any of the others is sealed. Slade and Oliver shot the lock of the door and then Slade is able to break open the door to reveal a massive collection of frozen corpses. All the corpses contain a very similar hole in the chest._

"_What happened to these people?" Oliver asked._

"_Whatever happened to them beforehand I don't know, but these bodies were used for smuggling. You freeze the body, carve a whole in their midsection, hide the drugs or other paraphernalia and then ship them in a body bag. Slade sighed, "We missed them, this is just the trash."_

* * *

Felicity Smoak slams face first to the mat for what seems like the umpteenth time for her. She turns over groaning part in frustration and part from the soreness.

"That was better, now the trick is to keep your weight evenly distributed." Diggle comments to her.

"I thought the trick was to avoid getting into fights." Felicity counters.

"Yeah, but when you already have a contract over your head, talking is going to do you much good."

The familiar beeps of the electronic lock signal to the both of them that Oliver is returning from his meeting with Frank Chen.

"How'd it go?" Felicity asks.

"About as good as one would expect," Oliver hands Felicity the encrypted USB drive, "This is The Triad's portion of The Code, is there any way you can scan the security on this thing without messing with the encryption?"

Felicity laughs, "That's what hacking is, it's disrupting the encryption."

"How did you get that away from Chen?" Diggle asks.

"He gave it to me as a sign of good faith," Oliver responds, "And he promises me the key as long as I do him a favor."

"And that is?" Diggle continues to question.

"Kill Malcom Merlyn," Oliver answers.

Diggle remains silent and then turns to Felicity, "Do you think you can hack it?"

Felicity shakes her head, "No, this drive is useless without the key."

"Then how were you able to discover my mother's portion of The Code?" Oliver now questions.

"Because your mother is a technological moron and backed the code up on a security site," Felicity than pauses, "But you have your father's portion, how did you get his key?"

Oliver pauses then his eyes go wide, "I need to talk to Thea."

* * *

Laurel Lance opens the door to her new apartment after the her previous apartment in the Glades was destroyed after the Chinese Triad tried to kill her. This new apartment, closer to Downtown and her new job as the assistant district attorney didn't come cheap but Tommy Merlyn her on and off again boyfriend insisted her would buy it for her.

"Hi dad," Laurel smiles and hugs her father, Detective Quentin Lance of Starling City's organized crime unit.

"Nice apartment," he comments while walking inside.

"A lot more space than the other one," Laurel adds.

"Safer too, there's some part of me that doesn't appreciate that the son of the city's biggest mob boss is paying for it, but I got nothing on him so I can't say much." Quentin stops and observes a picture of a young girl, "This is Sarah."

Laurel sighs, "Yes it is, it's been five years dad, and she killed herself over what she did, I figured that with everything going on and my new job that I should try to lift a little weight from my conscience."

"You're a better person than me," Quentin responds and then looks back at the picture, "That stupid canary, that thing chirped all day and night."

The doorbell rings, "That must be the food, I haven't had time to cook."

"That's good," Quentin jokes.

"Funny dad real funny," Laurel opens the door to reveal someone she isn't expecting, "Mom?"

"Hello Laurel," Laurel's mother Dinah Lance peaks around her, "Hi Quentin."

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Laurel asks.

"I need to talk to you," Dinah pauses, "And you too."

"About what? What could be so important after all this time?" Quentin responds.

Dinah sighs, "It's about Sarah, I think she may be alive."

"That's impossible, she hung herself, her corpse is buried in the cemetery mom."

"Then explain this," Dinah hands Laurel a photgraph, "A tourist took this in Pakistan." Laurel takes the photograph and observes it, the woman in the picture does appear to look very similar to her sister, if her sister had decided to die her hair from reddish brown to canary yellow. _Canary_, Laurel thinks to herself, "Dad take a look at this,"

"No," Quentin responds angrily, "She is dead, a she killed herself, drank a polymer that encased in her throat and died, the three of us buried her and the media ran us through the mud deciding it was out fault that she killed herself even though she was the one that was sleeping with Laurel's fiancé behind our backs."

"But what if that wasn't her?" Dinah responds, "The least we can do is investigate, make sure I'm wrong, set me straight, I can't go one day without thinking about her, the least I can do to give me some peace is know for sure that this girl in the picture isn't Sarah."

Laurel and Quentin look at each other, Laurel sighs, "Fine but I'm not making any promises."

* * *

_ Slade and Oliver return to the Bratva compound, a warehouse in the industrial area of Moscow, most of the Bratva enforcers and associates occupy the warehouse, each family settling into different areas, the living spaces consist of nothing more than a mattress, and a shelf that used to house warehouse parts. Oliver returns to his living space which sits adjacently next to Slades, while Slade's space if filled with many pictures of his past family and his current Bratva Family, the only two items Oliver has in his possession is a picture of his fiancée Laurel Lance and a small birch wood cube that his father handed to him right before he was killed._

_ "We need to find the prepper," Slade mentions while plopping onto his mattress, "The prepper is the one that prepares to bodies so that they can smuggle the Chinese drugs into Moscow." We find him and we find the drugs."_

* * *

Oliver after a long night at the club, Oliver has Diggle drive him and Thea home to the compound. "It's not normal of you to be riding home with me," Thea states.

"Just wanted to make sure my sister got home safely." Oliver smiles.

"Right like you cared before," Thea jokes.

"Well since you've started working for Tommy you've had your purse snatched and got kidnapped by a bunch of hitmen."

"So this is Tommy's fault?" Thea jokes again.

"No, I think it's nice that you are working, but as a big brother who hasn't gotten to spend as much time with his little sister as he's wanted to I figured the least I could do is make sure you make it home safely."

"And what are you going to do about it tough guy?"

"I don't have to do anything, I'll let Mr. Diggle handle them first and then I'll beat them up afterwards." The Bentley makes its way onto the grounds of the Queen Mansion and Diggle opens the door for them, "Подождите здесь," (wait here) Oliver whispers to Diggle. Oliver heads upstairs with Thea.

"Get some sleep Oliver," The familiar British voice of Walter Steele, Oliver's stepfather echoes from below the stairway, "We have a meeting with a new investor tomorrow, I would like you to be there."

"Sure thing Walter," Oliver answers with a smile.

"Your mother's arrest has certainly created a crisis for the company, so we need to take drastic measures to prevent the company from caving."

"Okay," Oliver states, "I will be there _and_ I won't be late."

"Thank you Oliver," Walter announces before heading back toward the kitchen.

Oliver sighs, "Guess that means I have to get to bed."

"Me too," Thea states, "All this work has made me exhausted."

Oliver smiles, "Goodnight Speedy."

"Good night Ollie," Thea responds. Thea enters her room and shuts the door, Oliver enters his and changes out of his suit into a sweat suit. He walks over to his sisters room and tries to open the door but it's locked. He pulls out some tweezers and a pin that he brought with him and quickly picks Thea's lock, he creeps the door open, and sees that Thea is enjoying a bath. Oliver slips into the room and moves quietly across Thea's room, he approaches Thea's nightstand pulls the drawer slightly open and removes the birch box from the drawer. He peeks over in the bathroom to see his sister eyes closed and sighing, "Roy Harper you have been a bad boy," she mewls in pleasure. Oliver nearly gags but is able to recover and leave the room quietly without Thea noticing.

Oliver quickly descends the stairs and heads out the front door and back towards the Bentley where Diggle is waiting for him.

"Вы достаточно долго." (Took you long enough)

"Заткнись." (Shut up), Oliver jumps back in the Bentley and Diggle drives him back to Verdant. The two make their way downstairs were Felicity is fixing herself a cup of coffee.

"I have a new demand, if I'm going to stay locked down here for eternity, I need to at least have a decent coffee maker, this Keurig stuff just will not do." She hands Oliver a piece of paper, "This is the one I want."

Oliver looks at the model, "This is a two-hundred and fifty dollar unit."

"I think you can afford it," Felicity scoffs.

Oliver smiles, "Fine, here, this is what I used to find my father's key to The Code." Oliver hands Felicity the birch box, Felicity takes it in her palm and stares at it, "There are small symbols carved into the box, I shaded the box's sides on a piece of paper and then decipher the key from there."

Felicity smiles, "This is great but this box is not going to reveal the Triad's key."

"You say that, but my father isn't a wood worker, so someone, someone from a long time ago had to make this and it was handed to him when my father became the leader of the Family. Which means that a box like this must have been a cipher they used long before encryption was invented. So I want you to look over it, figure out where it possibly comes from and perhaps we can find a way to break into the Triad's key without having to get ourselves killed."

* * *

_"Fucking chinks," Slade blurted out, "There country has seven billion people in it, they figure that they have enough people that need to get high in their own country without coming into ours." Slade pulled into the outskirts of a railyard, The Bratva had made a killing off recent synthetic drugs coming from Europe creating a new drug boom era. Synthetic drugs were becoming the drug of choice in Moscow, the Hipsters who were into their modern low income lifestyles started buying the drug and introducing it into other parts of the city. Synthetic drugs had become the drug that brought the Bratva back into the peak of their power since their stranglehold before the collapse of The Soviet Union. _

_ However the synthetic drug boom had brought attention from other major organized crime nations, mostly the Italians and the Chinese. The Chinese Triad had recently been smuggling a drug they called Miradone, or "Mira" as it's called in the streets. The high potency and the inexpensiveness of Mira made the drug very popular and it was overtaking the supply of the synthetic drug Krokidil, which the Bratva was peddling._

_ "How do you know what the guy looks like?" Oliver questioned._

_ "I don't, but I know the chink that's meeting him here." Slade answered._

_ Oliver nodded his head and flipped through his phone while parallel parked next to the loading bay that contained a shipment from China. "That's him," Slade pointed to a man in a beige suit, "That's the chink, goes by the name Marco, fucking slime ball, he takes in shipments of kidnapped girls and doesn't even bat an eye about it." Slade turned to Oliver, "You ready?"_

_ "As I'll ever be," Oliver responded, gripping the semi-automatic that rested underneath a newspaper in the passenger seat of the car._

_ The man in the beige suit suddenly held up his arms and walked over to a man carrying a black suitcase, the two shook hands while two larger men approached them, the other man handed the suitcase to one of the larger men and all four walked over to a black sedan. Slade picked up his pistol which he had resting near his feet on the floor, "Alright kid, I'm ready when you are." Slade put the car into gear and sped off toward the black sedan, once he got the car into position, he slammed on the breaks using his car as a makeshift blockade. _

_ The two raised their guns and began firing into the black sedan, the element of surprise had worked immaculately, as none of the four in the black sedan had a chance to defend themselves. After both Oliver and Slade emptied their weapons, Slade quickly stepped out of the car and chased after Marco, while Oliver checked for vitals, indeed all four were dead, after he heard sirens, Oliver grabbed the suitcase full of Mira and threw it into the passenger seat, Slade emerged seconds later with an unconscious Marco, he dumped the body in the backseat of the car and took off toward the warehouse just before the authorities arrived._

* * *

Oliver enters in the conference room and the sight of her nearly stops him dead.

"Oliver this is Isabel Rochev, CEO of Stellmoor International," Walter begins, "Ms. Rochev, Oliver Queen."

"Nice to finally meet you Mr. Queen," Rochev offers her hand.

Oliver inhales and then smiles, "Same to you Ms. Rochev." The trio take their seat along with the remaining board of Queen Consolidated. Rochev begins, "Stellmoor International is prepared to make a forty-five percent offer for Queen Consolidated, with your mother's recent arrest and her dirty laundry now being aired all over the city, this company is in freefall, I'm suggesting a carryover period, allowing Queen Consolidated to return to good ground, at that point we will offer to buy another six percent share giving Stellmoor International controlling interest of the company."

Oliver looks around the room, "You're taking the company away from the Queen Family?"

"The board is in favor of this," The board's chairmen responds.

Oliver turns to Walter, "Did you know about this?"

Walter nods, "I arranged it, your mother destroyed all this company built, and she lied to me numerous times, and you are not reliable enough to take over the business, the best thing I can do as CEO is arrange its takeover and get out while my dignity is still intact."

Oliver exhales slowly and nods, "Very well then, I guess you all leave me no choice."

"My lawyers will begin the paperwork," Rochev begins, "Thank you for making this as seamless as possible."

Everyone gets up to shake hands, Rochex approaches Oliver and whispers, "Ваше время пришло" in his ear before leaving. Oliver Queen, Oliver walks back towards his office as the Head of the Applied Sciences department, upon entering his secretary stands up and hands him his agenda, "You have a visitor he scheduled and appointment and then arrived two hours early."

"Who is he?" Oliver asks.

"Hot shot Alderman Sebastian Blood, probably asking to back him in the mayor's race coming up, there's always one that wants a Queen's money."

Oliver smiles, "Thank you, could you get Alderman Blood and I some coffee?"

Oliver enters his office, "Alderman Blood, why should I have the pleasure of seeing you today?"

Sebastian Blood shakes Oliver's hand than sits across from him on Oliver's array of modern leather furniture that situates in front of his desk, "I came here because tomorrow I am going to announce my campaign for mayor."

"And you want me to support your campaign," Oliver concludes.

"No, just the opposite," Blood leans back in his chair, "My constituents have a lot of anger towards your family, the Merlyn's, and any other notable crime family in this city, and now that your mother was finally dumb enough to get caught, I plan on running a campaign on taking all of your family down."

"My mother did unspeakable things, but I am my own man, and I am not your enemy." Oliver responds.

Blood laughs, "You're a Queen, so you are clearly not my friend, and real change in this city will not change until all your elitist friends realize that it is morally unacceptable to allow the millions in the city to suffer at the hands of the few who benefit from them."

"I understand," Oliver returns, "What I don't understand is why you came all the way up to my office to tell me."

Blood smiles, "Because you're a survivor, you know what it's like to live in poverty to scrounge for food, to wonder how exactly you are going to make it through to the next day. So I'm giving you an opportunity to free yourself and help the movement I'm going to start, testify against your mother, and then against your stepfather, and anyone else you've dealt with and take all these Families down, and in return you will be pardoned by the mayor elect who will be me and you can leave with your dignity."

The secretary enters handing each man a cup of coffee, Oliver takes a sip and smiles, "My mother won't need my testimony to be convicted, my stepfather is a noble man, and I know nothing of what my mother did besides the fact that she tried to kill me."

Blood nods his head, "Very well, then prepare to go down Mr. Queen, and by the way, I know for a fact that your mother's actions toward you will not go unpunished, I hear from a little birdy that she will be given the death penalty if convicted."

* * *

_The man known as Marco was awoken in the back of Slade's car, and Slade quickly haled a gun to his head, "Tell me where do they take the drugs in this city."_

_Marco laughed, "Do you think I care? I get the money and I go back on the train, you should have followed the men I gave the Mira to, not me."_

"_They don't go straight to the location, we would have been spotted," Oliver answered._

"_Well they know who you are now, I'm surprised you're all not dead yet, because when the other Bratva families find out what you're doing, they are going to come after you and the vengeance will be much worse than what you ever imagined, now let me go, and and we can all forget about what happened here." Slade cocked the gun back and chuckled, "Go to hell."_

_ Oliver stopped him, "Wait you said other Bratva families are supporting the Chinese?"_

_Marco laughed, "Of course they are, your head Yvgenny, he's a true believer in the Russian ways but communism is dead, it's a global market now, and other Bratva families are capitalizing on it, Russians working with Chinese, Italians working with Jews, on and on, and those that don't will be left in the dark." Slade has heard enough and put a bullet through Marco's skull. _

_He turns to Oliver, "Let's go deal with the body, I'll do the skinning, least I can do for finishing him."_

* * *

Oliver descends the steps of the foundry where Felicity nearly jumps on him from excitement, "You were right! Not bad for someone who got a D in tenth grade Algebra." Oliver looks at Felicity surprisingly, Felicity smiles, "If it's online I can find it."

Oliver smiles, "So what did you find?"

"So I did a spectroanalysis on your little wooden box, and it's not made from birch at all it's made from a wood that comes from a Banyan tree, which can only be found in the Pakistani Himalayas." Oliver's smile quickly wears off, he calmly walks over to the pantry area of the foundry pulls out a bottle of Vodka and takes a long swig. Diggle enters in shortly after and notices Oliver's distress.

"There something wrong Oliver?" Diggle asks.

"I just told him that his birch box is from the Pakistani Himalayas and he's in full drinking mode now."

Diggle's eyes open wide, "Oliver hand me that bottle as well."

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Felicity screams.

Oliver sighs, "Isabelle Rochev arrived at Queen Consolidated today."

Diggle spits out the Vodka, "Rochev is here!"

"What the fuck is going on!" Felicity screams. The two look at her in silence, "Sorry, I have a loud voice, it's bad."

Oliver sighs, "Isabelle Rochev, works for another Bratva family, more of a conglomerate, with the Chinese and the Italians, Stellmoor International must be their front. They are taking forty-five percent of the company within a few months they will get the fifty-one percent needed to dismantle the company. They're coming for us, they always said they were."

"Who's they?" Felciity asks.

"All of them, they know what were doing and they're coming to stop it. They've funded Sebastian Blood's mayor campaign, most of their campaign will be used against my family, they're probably stacking the deck so that my mother gets convicted and will be assured the death penalty. That was before you told me that the birch box comes from Nanda Parbat."

"Nanda Parbat?" Felicity still questions.

"Nanda Parbat is a mountain in the Pakistani Himalayas, it's located on the outer border of Tibet, it's known for a village that exists on the mountain, and it's the home to the League of Shadows. The League of Shadows is an organization that destroys cities it finds too corrupt to fix its ways, it's there term of serving justice." Oliver sighs and takes another swig of vodka, "The truth is, we're being attacked on multiple fronts, and there's no way we can stop it."


	10. Insurgent Canary

**Now that were FINALLY going to get Bratva Oliver in season 5, I figured it was time to start working on this piece before cannon ruins it.**

**I took some time off from fanficing (not a word) to finish my novel. It's currently posted on Amazon, titled Sector Seven: The Slate Protocol, it's a sequel to my previous novel Sector Seven. So with some free time on my hands let's get back to the story.**

**I HIGHLY recommend you read the previous chapters since there is a lot of AU going on. This new episode primarily focuses on Season 1 episodes 19-20 and Season 2 episode 3.**

**As always I do not own….Greg Berlanti does….**

* * *

Oliver Queen: My name is Oliver Queen, for five years I was trapped in Russia, and during my time there I had one goal: survive so that I can fulfill my quest to punish those that left me there to suffer. To do this I must become someone else…I must become something else.

* * *

Felicity walks up to Oliver and Diggle and snatches the bottle of vodka out of Oliver's hand, she takes a quick swig of the bottle and then tosses it against the concrete wall, "So instead of drinking your worries away and doing nothing, why don't we devise a plan to fix this problem."

Oliver walks toward Felicity and sighs, "This is not a simple problem that we can fix with some intuition and me firing arrows at people, this means that the information on the code, the ledgers, the plans that were developed were not developed by the families, the families are simply the pawns, mechanisms put in place by the League of Shadows to enact their plan to destroy the city. A plan that they have obviously put in place for decades, perhaps centuries, the three of us are not going to be able to stop that sort of mechanism. Even if we altered the plans and stopped the plans of the code, The League of Shadows will just keep coming, again, and again, and again, until the job is finished.

"How do you know so much about them?" Felicity asks.

"The Bratva, have a transaction, they perform on the first day of the year every year, it's called Жертвоприношение для сохранения, meaning _sacrifice to preserve_, The League destroyed the Soviet Union, because the Soviets were attempting to conquest portions of the League's territory in Pakistan. In payment, The league requires the Bratva to provide fifty people to turn over to the league as slaves to be brainwashed and serve. It's the Bratva's payment to the League to keep them away."

"The League set up a protection racket against the Bratva?" Felicity asks.

Oliver nods his head, "And I was very close to being one of them."

"So why don't we set something up like that?" Diggle chimes in, "We take the families down and offer them as payment."

"They set the family structure up, they are already serving the League, same with the Bratva, the Bratva are just doing the League's work as well, corrupting the country until it falls into chaos, basically what we're causing."

Felicity's head raises and her eyes go wide, "Bratva serving the League, the upcoming Bratva invasion, this Rochev woman, she must also be sent from the league, perhaps she was one of your "payments."

"Which gets us back to the Triad,"Diggles adds himself back into the, "Frank Chen wants you to kill Malcom Merlyn and he's offering you his portion of the code to do it. The head of the Triad wants another Don dead, and is willing to get out, and let the Bratva deal with the repercussions."

"That means Frank Chen fears that Malcom Merlyn is strong enough in his position that the material on the code will be accomplished."

"Which perhaps make Malcom Merlyn…" Oliver starts to reveal.

"The Keeper," Felicity finishes it.

"That also means the Dark Archer works for Malcom Merlyn, meaning the Dark Archer is most likely a member of the League of Shadows," Oliver concludes once more, "Which means The League is already here."

"Again!" Felicity interrupts, "We can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves or we can do something about it."

"We can't," Oliver replies.

"Oh yes we can, at least I'm going to do something about it." Felicity walks her computer and opens up a database program, "So the League of Shadows create a secret plan to destroy Starling City, they share this program in different parts and split it amongst the different crime families, leaving Malcom Merlyn in charge of the operation." Felicity then adds the database of The Triad, The Bertinelli Family, and the Queen family along with Merlyn family. "The Bratva, run by you, have taken up position within the City mostly claiming the Bertinelli and Triad grounds, and now the League has most likely second a second insurgency of Bratva to try to overtake the city to further ensure that their plans go through. So the question is why would they send an insurgency?"

"Because they are having doubts that the original plan is going to schedule, so they are sending in a second unit to make sure the job gets done." Oliver answers." Diggle adds.

"And, they are starting their insurgency by taking down Queen Consolidated, and then using those resources to take down our advances, and then gearing that up to take down Merlyn." Felicity puts the pieces together.

"Shit," Oliver replies.

"Yeah, it's a lot," Felicity answers.

"No, not that," Oliver answers, "No, it's much worse than that, based on what we've just talked about the insurgency is here to fast forward the process, so that means the number one priority is to stop the insurgency, which means we have to side with who the insurgency is trying to take over, which means Oliver Queen has to join the family business."

Oliver gets his coat and begins heading up the stairs, "Where are you going?" Diggle asks.

Oliver sighs, "To check on the guest upstairs, Diggle pick me up a little earlier tomorrow, I need to go pay mommy a visit."

* * *

_After they discussed with Yvgeny the revelation of other Russian Bratva working with the Chinese Triad, Yvgeny wanted to know which drugs were being smuggled in the bodies, that way they know which parts of the dirty Bratva to look for. So Slade and Oliver returned back to the location of the dead bodies with distinctive holes in their midsections, bagged one of the now clearly decomposing bodies and dumped it in the back of Slades's trunk._

"_Wonderful," Slade commented, "I now we have a dead Chinese man in the back of my car, this car already smells like shit."  
"Where are we going?" Oliver asked._

"_I know someone, she was pre-med back when we used to fuck." Slade laughed. Slade drove the car through the alleyways, until he reached a dilapidated slum. He pressed a contact on his cell phone, and waited._

"_Shado! Hey it's been a while, look I'm not looking for anything myself, I mean if you're interested I'm all for it, but I actually need a favor, more precisely the people that I work for need a favor from you." Slade smiled and ended that call, "She can't resist me."_

_A few minutes later a slender Chinese woman enters the alleyway, Oliver is shocked to see the woman that Slade called Shado, he expected tattooed, large breasted, leather wearing, an smoking, instead she was young, slender, beautiful, and most notably Chinese. _

_Slade got out of the car and opened the trunk, "Triad are shipping drugs inside the bodies, we need you to find out if there are traces of what they are shipping."_

_Shado nodded, "Drop the body in the dumpster there, I'll work on it when you guys leave."_

"_Don't you want one of us to keep watch?" Oliver aksed. "They're will be people looking for that, which means they'll be coming for you, and as we've know, they're not the friendliest bunch."  
Shado smiled, "I've done this many times before, the more people here the better chance of making a scene."_

"_Come on," Slade replied, "Let her play with her corpse."_ Slade and Oliver got back into the car, Slade drove around the corner and then parked the car again.

"_What are we doing?" Oliver asked.  
_

_"We're going to higher ground, so we can keep watch from a better vantage point," Slade laughed, "You really think I was going to leave her alone?"_

* * *

Detective Quentin Lance pulls a five dollar bill out of his wallet, "Here you go, Bud."

The hot dog vendor shakes him off, "On the house, Detective Lance, Bertinelli has been off my ass for weeks thanks to you."

Quentin laughs, partly out of joy for his favorite hot dog vendor, and partly because he had nothing to do with the downfall of the Bertinellis, and lastly because the Russian Bratva invasion is ten times worse of a threat to the city than the Bertinellis ever were, "Hey, no, no, no, here you go, a dog this delicious? I'd have to book myself for robbery, take it."

The vendor smiles and relents, "All right."

"Take care," Lance takes his first orgasmic bite of his tube steak before his radio blares to life, "Lance this is Lieutenant Pike, I need you down by Starling bridge, hopefully you haven't been eating."

"Shit," Lance replies, "I'll be there." A few minutes later he arrives to the scene under the Starling City bridge, there a young woman dressed in club attire dangles from the top of the bridge, he body entirely preserved, "Fuck, that's Barton Mathis."

"That seems to be what the M.O. indicates but he's supposed to be locked up in prison doing consecutive life sentences." Lieutenant Pike chimes.

"I'll check the footage of Iron Heights, you pay with the right people you can walk out the front door, either that or someone really knows his work well, do we know who the girl is yet?" Lance asks.

"Yeah, Cassidy Davis, also got two really important pieces of information as well, one she was seen tonight at Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn's place, and two by the look of those preserved veins, when she died, she was high on Vertigo."

"Well I guess that's a good place to start." Lance sighs, "Laurel is going to be pissed."

* * *

Oliver sits at the table in the visitation room, he can't help but nervously tap his foot, he's faced many dangers, torture, wolves, mafia, and yet he can't help but admit that the most terrifying person is now approaching him.

Moira queen sits in the seat across from him, she doesn't attempt to embrace him knowing that he knows what she tried to do to him, "Never fancied you coming around here, came to gloat?"

Oliver releases an exhale and shakes his head, "No actually I need your help, your company, our company needs your help."

Moira laughs, "Since when have you ever worried about the company? All you've ever worried about is your stupid club?"

Oliver inhales, "I started worrying about it when The Bratva want to take it over."

Moira again laughs, "Again, why should you care, it's not like you are good at carrying secrets." Oliver pauses for a second, wondering how many secrets she actually knows, Moira shakes her head, "You have a Bratva tattoo on your chest Oliver."

Oliver nods, "There are many Bratva, much like they're many mafia, this is Isabel Rochev, her front will be in control of 51 percent of the company, The Board has already made her CEO after Walter's resignation. I know her tactics she will gut your company like every other company she's taken over.  
Once they gobble up Queen Consolidated, all the people that have been loyal to Robert Queen, to Moira Queen, to Walter, and somewhat me will be out of a job. All of our trade secrets our businesses legal and illegal gone to the highest bidder. Even the things that you think you have kept secret will be out in the open, ripe for some really bad people to take."

Moira smiled, "This is the information that the girl told you about isn't it?"

This is nothing to do with her, she's probably some prostitute in Moscow by now, this has everything to do with what I escaped from, the people that shot my father in the head, and inducted me into the Bratva to pay for his debt. So as much as I would love to see you rot in hell, unfortunately you're going to repay your debt to me for your attempt on my life by handing me the family, and to do that I need you alive."

"How do you know this Isabel Rochev so well?" Moira asks, and then she sighs, "Never mind, I have a feeling I know." Moira sighs, "I need you to understand what's happening here, and there is a measure of guilt that is owed me. I'm ready to accept my punishment. I deserve the death penalty, and I will die knowing that I did everything to protect this family, including not handing the family over to a Bratva Captain."

"Fine, than the only other option to secure my safety is to cooperate with the investigation and testify against you, Walter, and Thea for using dirty money.

Moira glares at her son, "You wouldn't dare."

Oliver smiles, "Sebastian Blood is running his campaign on taking us down, he offered me immunity and protective custody to testify against the family, so either you help me take the family or I let it burn to the ground, and no one will ever find me." Oliver looks up at the guard, "We're done, so mother I will be getting you the best lawyers in the business and we're going to fight this." Oliver watches her mother get taken back inside, he heads out of the prison and back to the Bentley where Diggle is waiting, "Dig, have Felicity trace the calls coming out of Iron Heights, I want to see who my mother tries to warn first."

* * *

_Rain begins to fall in the Moscow night as Slade and Oliver watch Shado carve up the corpse in the dumpster. The two can see that she has some sort of test tube in her hand and is putting drops in them but they can't see anything else. All of a sudden a car rushes on the scene and slams the breaks just before hitting the dumpster. Three men get out of the car and hop into the dumpster._

_ "Fuck!" Shado and Oliver start firing upon the men, they wound one but the other two grab hold of Shado and throw her into the car. One comes back to get the body and Oliver and Slade hit that one as well. The two wounded men attempt to carry the body but Oliver and Slade eventually finish them off. The car speeds away with Shado in it. Oliver sees the test tube protruding out of the carcass, Oliver heads down to the dumpster._

_ "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Slade asks._

_ "I'm going to get the sample." Oliver answers._

_ "Fuck the sample tail the car!" _

_ "You tail it from the roof, and I'll get the sample." Oliver climbs into the dumpster, nearly vomits from the carcass, "Why did they waste two men to retrieve you?" Oliver snatches the tube, and then ponders for a second, "Here goes nothing." Oliver drives a knife into hole of the carcass, scoops out some tissue and places it in a trash bag, he places test tube in the pocket of his coat and hops out of the dumpster looking for Slade who is tailing the car from the rooftops._

* * *

Oliver returns from his morning conversation back to his club, Oliver also received an email this morning from Isabel Rochev that in order to save the company money they are "merging" the applied sciences department into the research and development department meaning that he is no longer needed as an executive, but will still requested at board meetings _for now._ Oliver doesn't mind being pushed out, he really didn't want to spend his days with Isabel anyway. Plus, it gave him more time to solve more immediate problems. None of which concerned his manager at Verdant, Tommy Merlyn.  
"What sort of business has a lost and found filled with women's underwear?" Tommy presents, "Best business ever? Oh, having this much fun should be against the law."

"Oh, if wishing made it so." Detective Lance chimes in, "Sorry, am I interrupting anything?"

"ls Laurel okay?" Tommy asks.

"She's fine." Lance answers, "Although she probably wouldn't like you discussing other womens' underwear but that's none of my business, I'm just her father." Tommy presses his lips together realizing the situation he's in while Oliver just chuckles in the background. "This visit is about something else," Lance continues, "A girl just got picked up a couple blocks from here, her body hanging off the Starling Bridge." Lance flashes the crime scene picture.

Tommy repulses, "Is she frozen?"

"Preserved," Lance answers, "Guys a copycat, this work used to be done by a man called the Doll Maker." Oliver's eyes shoot up immediately, Lance turns to him, "That ring any bells?"

"Heard of a doll maker before, a human one, in Russia." Oliver answers, "Why are you showing us this?"

"She was in your club last night." Lance answers.  
"A lot of people were," Tommy answers, "You think she was abducted here?"

"Perhaps," Lance answers, "She was also high on Vertigo, and since Vertigo is a property of The Bratva trade, and since the Bratva have been kidnapping girls recently according to Oliver, and since this girl was in a club owned by two sons of gangsters, this case is under my jurisdiction."

"We don't allow drugs here, detective," Tommy answers.

"That's what they all say, Control your clientele, before we find anyone else hanging from bridges." Lance walks out of the club leaving Tommy and Oliver alone.

"Girls getting abducted out of our club, not exactly the reputation we want, and the fact that we're in the Glades doesn't help."

"Let's beef up security tonight, let less people in, make sure we can see everything, you get set up, I'm gonna go look at the tape in my office. We get Lance a lead he'll get off our backs." Tommy nods and Oliver walks to his office to observe the tape, it didn't take long to find her aloof on the dance floor, when a group of her friends approach her and walk her out of the club. Oliver splices the footage and sends the footage in an attachment to Lance showing that Cassidy Davis left with people she knew out of the club, and was not abducted inside the club.

Oliver then heads down from his office and types the code into the keypad and makes his way into the foundry, "I'm guessing that within 24 hours, Lance is going to be searching this place out, so we need to shut down operations for now."

Diggle nods, "We can move our operations to The Docks at Martin Summers' old fortress."

Oliver nods, "That'll work, Felicity has my mom called anyone yet?"

"She called her attorney right after you left," Felicity answers, "Talked about you testifying against them_"_

"Good," Oliver replies, "She did exactly what I expected her to do, now we figure out if she lets me into the family or puts a hit on me. Either way we can trace the Queen Family to see who's exactly in charge at this point."

"You want someone to try to kill you?" Felicity questions.

"Happens every day," Oliver answers. Suddenly his phone begins to ring, in the tone that signals that The Hood is being called by Lance, Oliver answers his phone, "Detective,"

"When we last met you told me that you're trying to do things differently that true?" Lance asks.

"What do you think?" Oliver responds.

"Let's just say I'm willing to be convinced. I always thought we didn't need to go outside of law to find justice. But in light of recent events, I'm not so sure anymore. Barton Mathis, the media calls him the Doll Maker, 'cause he suffocates his victims with a flexible polymer that he pours down their throats and then he dresses them up like dolls. I put him away, but I've just seen from the footage of him walking out the front door of Iron Heights last night without anyone caring, and now he's out and he's killing again. I have my personal file, Mathis killed eight girls before I got him last time, I don't want any more on my conscience. We're spread so thin right now with everything going down, that they can't even risk letting the public know that Mathis is out. You said you're trying another way? Maybe I am, too. Last time the Doll Maker was active in Starling City, he ramped up to one kill every three days. That gives us two to catch him."

"Can we connect the victims?" Oliver asks

"Young, pretty, usually high, much like last nights, we found her on the Starling Bridge, she had been at Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn's joint, probably got some Vertigo there and then got stalked by the Doll Maker afterward. I couldn't figure out how exactly he chose them, and if porcelain dolls weren't creepy enough all on their own, Barton Mathis doesn't have any family or known acquaintances. Lone wolves are harder to catch."

"But they do have the right to an attorney," Oliver replies, "Where is the office of whoever represented Barton Mathis."

"Very well, I'll send you the address," Lance replies.

Oliver hangs up the phone, "Makes sense now, Mathis works all over the world, he's a fence. He uses humans, preserves them and then stuffs them with items to smuggle. Apparently last night before the murder he walked out of Iron Heights, Rochev must have paid off Iron Heights to let him off, that's how the Bratva are coming for me, they kicked me out of Queen Consolidated and now they are using the Doll Maker to shut down my club. That means someone is slipping Vertigo in my club, getting girls high, and then shipping them to the Doll Maker to preserve." Oliver lets out a breath, "Let's clear this place out, we got two days before the Doll Maker will strike again. We won't be able to stop him if we don't clear our tracks first."

"And where am I going?" Felicity asks.

Oliver looks at Diggle, Diggle realizing what Oliver is thinking violently shakes his head, "ты безумный" (you're insane).

Felicity snaps her head back to Oliver, "What did he just say? What are you thinking about? Will somebody tell me what the fuck is going on!"

"Depends on how much you want to be freed," Oliver replies.

"Anything," Felicity snaps back, then Felicity pauses, "Let me understand this properly you're going to use me as bait right, not perform any favors or anything, I'm not that kind of girl…"

Diggle shakes his head, "We cannot secure your safety."

"But being in here 24/7 isn't exactly my way of living, besides it's selfish of me, young girls are being killed and we have the means to stop him, I told you from the beginning that I would not help you in your Bratva plans, but in this case we put a serial killer back behind bars, and you prevent the insurgent Bratva from taking down your club. Win-win in my opinion."

Oliver nods, "Then we have two days to prepare, see if you can track down any other Doll Maker killings, see if we can find a correlation, I'll get Lance's file tonight while we hunt down the lawyer. Diggle Lance says he's kills every three days, I need you to be head of security tonight, make sure it stays that way."

That night Oliver puts the hood on and meets Detective Lance at the office building of Tony Daniel. Lance knocks on the door and Tony Daniel lets Lance inside, "Tony Daniel?"

"Help you with something, Officer?"

"Barton Mathis, according to the D.A.'s office, you handled his post-trial appeals, and I'd like to know where he is. Where do we find him?"

"Iron Heights prison," Daniel shoots back flippantly.

"He got out," Oliver storms in the room.

"What? How?" Daniel responds.

"You spent hours with him! Where would he run? Where?!" Oliver interrogates.

"I don't know, I-I swear!" Daniel pleads, Oliver's patience wears thin, he pull and arrow out of his quiver and jams it into Daniel's shoulder. Daniel screams in pain.

"What the hell are you doing?! I thought you were done killing people!" Lance says.

"He'll live," Oliver replies.

"Yeah, but he'll report me to my lieutenant!" Lance reasons.

"He won't talk to anyone." Oliver says.

"What makes you so sure?" Lance questions.

"Because he has another shoulder," Oliver responds.

"Aah! Oh, ok, ok, ok! There-there is another place." Daniel confesses, "He was always drawing it, sketching. His cell walls were covered with the place."

Yeah, well, what's the place? Was it in Starling City?" Lance asks.

"Yeah," Daniel answers, "The Bisque Museum, he said the building reminded him of Germany where porcelain dolls were invented.

Oliver pulls the arrow out Daniel who once again screams in agony, "I'm sorry." Lance replies, "I guess he just gets enthusiastic sometimes."

Oliver hits a button on his comm device, "You get all that?"

"Unfortunately, I got all of it, not unfortunately, oh that was a double negative, I mean yes, looking at the camera footage, I found a hotel across from the Bisque Museum, footage shows a guy matching Mathis' description that checked in room 52, and he paid in cash."

Oliver releases a breath, "Follow me Detective I got a lead." Oliver heads down and hops on his Ducati while Lance follows in his car. They make their way to the hotel five minutes later, "I'll take the emergency directory, you can go in the front."

"Now listen, just we're so clear, when we go through that door, we're here to arrest Mathis, ok, not to torture him." Lance warns.

"You asked for my help." Oliver replies.

"Yes, but I am still a police officer, I still have to play by the rules unlike you." Lance answers. Oliver nods \and shoots a grappling arrow up to the fifth floor. He skips across the balconies until he finds room 52. He waits until Lance gives him the signal to enter, he then picks the lock to the back sliding door and enters in the room. There he finds Barton Mathis standing behind a woman tied to a chair with her forehead tied down holding her head upwards and a dental insert in her mouth to keep it open.

"Detective, It's been too long, and I see you've brought friends this time."

"You sick son of a bitch!" Lance screams as he points his gun in Mathis' direction.

"Sick? I've never felt better, fresh air agrees with me." Mathis responds.

"Yeah, well, don't get too used to it," Lance answers, "I caught you before, and now I'm here to do it again."

"Fair enough," Mathis responds, he snaps his fingers and a load of armed men enter the room, "Before I send you to your unfortunate deaths, I have someone who'd like to say hello to you, say hello, dear." The only thing that can be heard from the woman is muffled cries. "She's a little inarticulate at the time."

"She's done nothing to you!" Lance screams while Oliver looks over the situation, he's outgunned and outnumbered, in any situation he knows that he would bail from the window and live to see another day, the situation with Mathis is not a massive priority to sacrifice himself for, however, bailing on Detective Lance would ruin his alliance in the slight chance that Lance would survive. So he intends to stay put, watch the execution of the girl and Lance and then escape afterwards.

"Please, don't hurt her, just let her go!" Lance pleads further.

"And allow her to wither away in a mediocre and forgettable life," Mathis laughs, "No.  
No, no, no, no, no. She deserves so much better. She deserves to see her beauty preserved. Pristine. Forever. Don't worry. I will turn her into something special. Pay attention Detective, what comes next is really quite exquisite. The sound of an esophagus slowly hardening, like a symphony."

Mathis begins to pour the liquid down the woman's throat, Oliver looks down and notices the woman's midriff is swollen, _that's the drugs._ The suddenly an extremely loud and piercing noise encompasses the room, all the glass in the room and the sliding glass door all shatter to pieces. The suddenly a blond woman in black leather carry a bow staff and uses the bow to snap Mathis' neck. Oliver sees his opportunity and fire and explosive arrow into the ground, the arrow expodes sending bodies scattered in all directions, he grabs Lance and looks back at the blonde woman who has freed, the girl in the chair.

"I'll take her to the hospital," The woman replies, "You take the Detective."

"I want the drugs hidden in her," Oliver demands.

"Certainly," the blonde woman attaches the girl to her leather suit and jumps out the window, a parachute deploys and the two women make it safely to the ground.

"Who was that?" Lance asks.

"I have no idea," Oliver responds.

"Great now there's two of you." Lance replies.

Oliver repels Lance down to the ground, Lance wipes himself down and stands up straight, "Well that was awkward, but thank you, not just for the ride down. As much as I would have liked to bring Mathis back to justice, at least he won't be able to harm anyone else."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that detective, you need to figure out what's going on at the prison, if they're willing to let a psychopath like that out, who knows who else they will be willing to let out at the right price."

"You need to find out who your new friend is," Lance counters.

"Very well detective," Oliver gets on his Ducati and takes an alternative route back to Verdant so that Lance won't track him, he makes his way through the underground entrance and makes his way up to the foundry.

"How did you get out of there? What was that sound?" Felicity ponders.

"I had help from a masked blonde woman in black," Oliver answers as he takes off his suit.

Felicity stares at Oliver's zipper pulling apart and then shakes herself out of it. "Another copycat vigilante?"

"No," Oliver answers, "She was different, trained, and she used a sonic thing."

"Wait, sonic thing? Could you be a bit more specific?" Felicity turns around to her monitors, "Before I have to unplug everything I might as well do one last search."

"She turned it on and the glass shattered." Oliver messages her ears remembering the deafening noise.

"Ok, well, who was she and why would she help you? And how did she know to help you?" Felicity asks while setting up a search algorithm.

"All good questions," Oliver replies as he changes tee-shirts and puts on his grey suit, "I don't like the idea of another player in town."

Oliver passes Felicity, she swallows, "You sure clean up quickly." Oliver turns back to her, "I mean I'll see what I can find."

Oliver can't help but release a smile as he makes his way into the club, Oliver finds Diggle scanning the monitors in Oliver's office, "Found a couple of girls stumbling around, we immediately sent them home. It's been slow anyway, nobody is even waiting outside."

"News gets around fast," Oliver assesses, "Barton Mathis is dead."

"You killed him?" Diggle asks.

"No, a woman in black leather and blonde hair did, snapped his neck with a bow staff."

"Doesn't sound very Bratva or mafia like?" Diggles responds.

"It does sound very League of Shadows like though, they tend to stay away from weapons that cause collateral damage. They tend to use their pawns for that."

"So a League of Shadows assassin kills a fence? That doesn't seem like that is something that is according to their plan."

"I know," Oliver replies, "I need to find her, before she causes any problems that we can't solve quietly, how's the evacuation going?"

"Everything will be packed before last call," Diggle answers. Oliver nods and makes his way out of the office.

* * *

_Slade drives aggressively back to their Bratva quarters, the back wheels slightly sliding around on the tarmac, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, we have brought her to a secure location!"_

_"She told us that she's done this many times, it's her life, she chose to help us and sometimes those are the consequences." Oliver replies_

_"Is that how you always treated people Mr. Queen, use them and toss them to the side?"_

_"It's the terms I've had to develop since I was kidnapped here." Oliver answers._

_"I was wrong about you," Slade replies as he slides into another corner, "You're definitely an idiot, but you will unfortunately go much further than me in the Bratva."_

* * *

Detective Lance enters the club, where Tommy Merlyn is running through his inventory, "Mr. Merlyn how was the club last night."

"Slow, very slow, scaringly slow." Tommy replies, "Just lucky that Oliver pays me a salary instead of tips."

"Well my night was more unfortunate as well for different reasons, anyway, got news that Barton Mathis was murdered last night, something you can spread around, unfortunately it doesn't answer the question as to how she got the Vertigo in the first place, until we got a hold of her phone records this morning."

Tommy looks up at Lance, "Are you implying anything Detective?"

"You said you didn't know her," Lance starts, "But the last text off her phone was to you."

"Really?" Tommy looks at the footage and then finds the text on his phone, "Well, I'll be damned. Hm. I didn't reply. I get a hundred texts a night. People wanting to get into the club."

So that's what she meant by, "Can you hook me up?" What else would it be about?"

"Hook her up by getting her to skip the line, we were wrapped around the building last night."

"Where's Queen?" Lance asks.

"He's at his mother's court hearing, besides he never shows up until right before opening, why?"

"Ten thousand dollars is missing from your club's bank account," Lance replies.

"I don't know where you got that figure because this is a private club, so you would need a warrant to see them."

"If you spent that money on Vertigo - so you could hook up your clientele…"

"Dad!" Laurel Lance enters the building, "What are you doing here!" She walks up next to Tommy, "Whatever he's asking you don't say anything."

"I'm trying to…" Lance sighs.

"To do your job?" Laurel interrupts, "I know, and this is me doing mine."

Lance inhales deeply, "Laurel, I know I look like that disapproving father, again, but I came down

here so another cop wouldn't, by the way what are you doing here."

"I'm taking my boyfriend out to lunch because he's a little stressed out about the murder situation,

clearly you are not helping."

Lance nods, "Well I don't mean to hold you up."

* * *

"Docket ending 4587, State versus Queen," The judge relaxes into his leather chair, "All right, I'll hear your motions, ladies first."

Moira's lawyer begins first, "Your Honor, we would like to be heard once again on the issue of bail.  
Might I remind the court that the defendant is presumed innocent?"

"No need," The judge answers, "I went to law school. It's where I learned that bail, once denied, cannot be set in the absence of change of circumstance. Mr. Donner, what do you have for me?"

"Your Honor, the State has no pre-trial motions to make at this time. We would like to serve notice to the defense pursuant to rule of criminal procedure 15."

"Mom, we are going to fight this," Oliver says to his mother, "No one is going to take you from us.  
We won't let it happen."

Moira turns to her son and slips him a piece of paper, then she releases a glare at her son just to gavel falls and she's taken away."

Oliver walks outside, with Diggle tailing as his security, he gets back into his Bentley as the reporters ask random questions and the photographer's cameras continue to flash, "I'm surprised there wasn't a gunshot attempt." Oliver mentions as he opens the piece of paper.

"We had the place scoped so perhaps my security team will notify us of anything," The Bentley rolls out of the parking place and into Starling City, "Where to Mr. Queen?"

Oliver opens the note and reads the content

_Malcom Merlyn runs the family now, thanks to you._

Oliver sighs, "Merlyn Enterprises, Diggle."

* * *

**Oliver getting in bed with Malcom Merlyn? Oh how the spider weaves her web.**

.


End file.
